


Alternate Realities Vol 10 - Niska's Army - REFORMATTED

by MARKSE



Series: HUMANS FAN FICTION - Reformatted Works for easier reading [6]
Category: Cabin Pressure, Humans (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-15
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-08-12 23:08:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 49
Words: 40,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7952812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MARKSE/pseuds/MARKSE
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Niska had taken Mattie's drive all those years ago. Now she needed it again, not because she wanted to but because she needed to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to thank everyone that inspired a section, but there are too many to list. My wife's iPhone playlist inspired a few bits. Another lady that needs a mention is Joni. Without her prompt list this would never have started. It grew legs and ran, got way out of control, another monster 40K word work.
> 
> Joni, the Cabin Pressure AU mix is for you.

Niska let the net curtains fall back into place and looked across the living room at Odi. It was one o'clock in the afternoon and he was plugged in, charging. He was forever charging. Not quite two months ago he'd withdrawn into himself, wasn't wanting to do anything else. With anyone. She'd asked for toast, to play some games, even walked into the room with her sexiest Sister Synth bikers outfit on, all patent leather and killer heals, the one that had made him smile the most. Zero response. Other than to acknowledge she was there with a glance and immediately return to charge mode. She'd run a diagnostic Mattie had given her, there was nothing wrong at a hardware level, least nothing she could see. He sat and charged if he needed it or not.

She powered him off, with considerable effort picked him up and dropped him on the sofa. On power up he stood, walked to the chair, sat back down and plugged himself back in. Niska clenched her fists and looked for something to punch. She loved him dearly, but really needed to vent her growing frustration. With nothing suitable to punch and her face close to his she did a loud scream breaking a nearby picture frame's glass. Still nothing from Odi. Where had his personality gone? It was like he'd become worse than a standard Persona Synthetic.

With Mattie, Leo, Danny and Emily out of action George had been voted acting head of DCL. The Elster family had all but fallen apart for her. Fred was busy with George for most of the day, Max and Mia were playing host to Leo and Mattie's consciousness. When George wasn't busy with Fred and Harun he spent the rest of his limited free time with Isobel. She really needed help examining Odi's root code, the two people she trusted to look at it were George or Leo, the Leo now residing in Max.

She'd got on her bike yesterday and gone out for hours, there'd not been a single question from anyone as to where she'd been. Nobody had missed her. She had returned to see Odi sat in the exact same spot, his finger still doing the charging twitch. Charging. Always bloody charging! She had no blood, only synth fluid, but it didn't stop her adopting the word from Toby, he himself having borrowed it from Daniel. To be fair to George, she hadn't really given him all the details, not wanting to distract him from his important work.

Niska shook her head, sod it, as an angry Toby would say, time to leave Odi to his own devices again and go out.

The bike shed alarm is disabled, door unlocked. Inside the cover is removed and charge cable disconnected. She wanted one of the more up to date bikes with the Tron theming but with Danny and the others in their medically induced comas that wasn't going to happen any time soon. She'd have to live with the bike as it was with the narrower tyres. The bike was fine, she just fancied one with a lot more grip she could push even harder around the corners. The helmet is pulled on, her WiFi linked with the bike controls. Steering needed arm movements and shifting of body weight, everything else could be done with a thought. Having cleared the alleyway she thinks through disabling some safeguards, calls for high speed and does a wheelie into the road.

She lets part of her processing wander, think about a destination and their disrupted family. Thoughts of Toby return. He'd got quite angry at the world for taking his sister and best friend from him like that, even more so when he had to watch Mia and pretend to see Mattie. 'Why does the family's life have to be like a fucking depressing episode of East Enders? Why can't we have a normal fucking life!'

He now cursed more than Silas, which annoyed Laura no end. Silas. Maybe she could ask him? No, best not. The thought of him rummaging around in Odi's code didn't appeal to her so the thought was quickly dismissed.

She'd helped with Odi, brought the shy Cindy to life. She needed someone else to talk to. A synth someone. She'd agreed not to do any more conversions, but that was a long time ago, before the plane crash, things had changed. A lot.

What had happened to the Simon unit she'd helped patch up during her Florence phase? Maybe she could track him down, go say hello. There was something a bit flawed with the code, this Tree of Life. It turned a few standard synths into loners. Simon hadn't stayed in touch. Nis worried that the desire to be part of a family had left Odi too. Then again, Mr Patches had got Cindy out of her shell a couple of years ago, maybe it wasn't the code but external influences?


	2. Chapter 2

At the Hawkins house Sophie lets her in, "Hello Nis, how are you?"

"Frustrated Sophie, very frustrated. Odi's still in his endless charge mode."

"Sorry, Mia wants Mattie to help but also doesn't want Odi accidentally spilling the beans on what's really going on."

"Much as I love him, if anyone did it would be him. Or Joe. Is Laura about?"

"No, still in court. Why?"

"I want to borrow the drive."

"The one you pretended to give her twice already?"

"Pretended first time. Not the second."

"That's not what Mattie said when she plugged it into her Slate. She said it was already formatted but empty."

Niska's face drops. Mia could be herself at any time she wished, Max couldn't be Max and Leo simultaneously. It needed all of them together or the drive. "Can I see it please?"

"I think it's in my room. She said something about hooking it up to my media player for extra storage. It might have a few National Geographic recordings on it now."

Niska feels her expression drop further south. This wasn't turning out to be her day, week or month, "Are Mattie and Leo about?"

"No, Mia and Max have gone for a drive, Leo wanted to take Mattie somewhere romantic."

"Romantic? Max and Mia? Do you know what.."

"Yes, I know. Mia said they'd make sure Leo and or Mattie fell asleep before anything like that happened. She said one bad night with Dad was bad enough, having to act out a part with Max was totally out of the question."

Niska frowns at the young girl, "You've understood the problem?"

"I'm not a baby. We do classes at school. And anyway, you don't bonk your brothers and sisters. That's just icky." Sophie screws her face up and does a little shudder.

Niska laughs, "Yes, totally icky." It was odd, somehow thinking of the abuse she'd got from David Elster as icky made it less painful to recall. It was still wrong, still unforgivable, that would never change, but somehow it hurt less. "So can I see the drive?"

"Sure. Jason is over. Come upstairs."

Sophie unplugs the drive and hands it to Niska, "Jason wanted to see Mr Patches. He's been powered down for ages." She gets the duster and gives him a good few flicks. Several sneezes later she pushes the two special locations to power him up. He was awake again. Niska watches from the doorway as Sophie apologises, explains what had happened. His clock had jumped back to the epoch, it was like he'd been born again, a rebirth.

Mr Patches jumps off his charge chair and walks to the edge of the dresser, looks down, "Ted, are you about? I'm back! This is my second chance at life!"


	3. Chapter 3

As the three of them go to the stairs Mr Patches calls out, "Niska?"

She looks at Sophie who nods and motions for her to return to the room.

"Hi Patches, how are you?"

"I knew it was you from your signals, that old NHS code is handy. I'm disappointed, a little upset. I wouldn't have thought Sophie would let me stay powered down for so long."

"She was really hurting, didn't want to play anymore. A bit like my Odi I think."

"Odi? What's happened to Odi?"

"He keeps going into charge mode whatever I do."

"Had you said something?"

"Not that I can think of."

"Or not said something when you should have?"

"Possibly. But when you don't know what you don't know how can you fix it?"

"I don't know."

"Me neither."

"I was off for two years. How long has he been like that?"

"Months."

"Well I'm awake now, maybe I can help wake him up?"

"I don't see how but I'm willing to give it a shot, everyone else is too busy or not themselves. Let me ask Sophie if you can come home with me."

"Not themselves?"

"You'll see."

Downstairs Niska finds Sophie and Jason making drinks in the kitchen. Sophie agrees, says Niska can have him for as long as it takes. She watches Mr Patches having a conversation with Mia, or was it Mattie? Or both? She waits for him to finish and practices small talk with Sophie and Jason.


	4. Chapter 4

"Wow! This is brilliant!"

"You like it?"

"Love it! You can really control it with your thoughts?"

"Everything but the steering."

"Brilliant! How fast can it go?"

"Very fast. Enough for me to lose my license several times over."

"So you don't fancy helping set the giraffe land speed record?"

"Maybe, if we can find an empty road without cameras."

At the house Mr Patches and Niska find Odi still sat on the chair charging.

"Nis, have you tried talking to him?"

"Have I! How can I talk with him when he's constantly in charge mode?"

"Bump?"

"He doesn't reply."

"Can I try?"

"Sure. How?"

"Rest me on his head, belly down, head forward."

Niska does as asked and does a little laugh, "He looks a bit silly, as if he's gone to put on a hat and picked you up by mistake."

Mr Patches bumps over WiFi. Odi hadn't been expecting to receive strange thoughts from a robot giraffe. After a while he stands and smiles. Niska throws her arms around him and gives him a passionate kiss.

There's a long breathing out, "I've had a dream about a kiss so many times. A secret between us if you don't mind?"

"Odi?"

"Patches."

Niska scowls, "You tricked me!"

"No, you wanted Odi back so much you jumped to a conclusion before you had the facts. Odi has given me control to have a look around the problem."

"Oh. Sorry. How have you done that?"

"The old Fred-Gesha link code Mattie helped write? I grabbed it off the SVN server. Odi's issue is charging related."

"I know that! He's forever bloody charging!"

"Yes. But *why*?" He has Odi move a little too much and slides off, is caught by Niska just in time. With the link broken Odi sits back down and plugs in. "Oops! I need something to stop me falling off. Do you have a shower cap?"

"No."

"Large elastic band?"

"No. Not even lots of small ones."

"Any old underwear you don't want? Clean of course."

Niska gives him an odd look. "We don't soil underwear like humans. We don't shed skin cells, leak bodily fluids."

"Unless you've got a faulty charge port?"

"I've not had a charge port for years, Fred did the induction loop upgrade. Odi should have had it too."

"So, any old underwear you don't need? Just for the elasticated band, you can cut the rest off."

Niska carries him upstairs, opens a draw. "Take your pick."

"Something simple, that white cotton pair."

"My Elster issue briefs. Fine."

"Do you have any scissors?"

"No, what would I need any of them for?"

"A sharp knife?"

Niska smiles, eyes wide open, "Now you're talking! Follow me."

"Um, Niska?"

"Yes?"

"I'm not driving Odi's body?"

"Oh, yes, sorry." she picks him up and carries him to the spare room.

"Oh boy! I'm not dreaming am I."

"No, they're very much real."

"Are they legal?"

"Don't ask silly questions Patches."

"Okay. Mum's the word."

"Mum?"

"A human expression. I'll keep your secret."

"Thanks."

"So how many weapons do you have in here?"

"Eight hundred and thirty seven not including either of us."

"I'm hardly a weapon."

Niska smiles softly, a calm look of experience, "Thrown fast enough anything is."

"Really?"

"Yes." she steps to a wall and picks something from the magnet holding it in place, "I think this throwing knife will do."

Back down stairs Niska places him back on Odi's head, "And I do what with this?"

"Use it as a chin strap."

"Like this?"

"Perfect."

Odi stands, "Hello again."

"Who's saying that?"

"Not Odi just yet. Being able to look you in the eyes, it's wonderful. A dream come true. I wish I could do that with Cindy, looking up at everyone gives a very unflattering perspective."

"Help me get Odi back and I may be able to help your wish become a reality."

"Really? How?"

"Your own synth body."

"Brilliant! Ted too? He's my big brother, I wouldn't want to do it without him."

"If that's what you'd like."

"Awesome! .. But isn't making a synth body really really expensive?"

"Yes. But George has been investing DCL funds wisely with some help from Peggy, I think there's plenty in the pot. And you and Ted have been great friend to Sophie."

"It's still an awful lot of money. Can we keep it our little secret please?"

Niska nods, "If you wish?"

"Right, let me have a good think. I'm getting very good at thinking. I might not have the mass of cores you lot do but I'm still good at it. It may take a while, feel free to get on with other things."

"I'm in no hurry to go do anything else."

One hour forty two minutes and forty one seconds later Odi pulls the charge cable and smiles, "Hello Nis, sorry to have been a pain."

"Odi?"

"Yes Nis?"

"It's really you?"

Odi holds Mr Patches with one hand and removes the briefs chin strap with another, "Yes, Mr Patches has explained everything."

"What happened?"

Mr Patches stands on Odi's lap, "I may be partly to blame."

"How?"

"My old long message to the group on power readings."

Odi nods, "I didn't read it in full before trying some of the ideas."

Niska frowns.

Mr Patches flops into a seated position, "Do a power status once and you get an int. Do it again in the same millisecond and you get a float. A third time and you get the raw number."

Niska frowns, "Minus eighty three point five..?"

"The IEEE 754 single-precision binary floating-point format standard specifies a binary32 as having a single bit for sign, exponent 8 bit, significant precision 24 bits, 23 stored. You can't have negative charge so the sign bit is repurposed, used to indicate if you're running from battery okay."

Niska frowns again, "And you discovered this?"

Mr Patches nods. "The X1 MUS was based on your synth design, new code by Silas. I'm a cut down or very scaled down X1, but some useful bits were kept in."

"Useful how?"

"If you think in floating point charge levels you can profile what different things will do to your battery drain with quite a lot of accuracy."

Odi smiles, "I'd think charge charge charge instead of charge charge get a negative and panic, go back on charge. If I'd got to the bottom of the notes as Mr Patches intended I'd have understood why."

Mr Patches turns to face her straight on, "Sorry Niska."

She turns to see Odi, "You weren't to blame Patches. If notes are not read in full it's the readers fault."

Mr Patches looks down, "Do we still have a deal?"

"Of course. I keep my promises. Although Leo and the others have to come first."

"Totally agree. Thanks."

Odi frowns, "What promise?"

"I just agreed to help Mr Patches and Ted with a little something if he helped bring you back."

"On the subject of bringing back, when I do go can you take me the long way home? Somewhere fast?"

"Just for a short burst?"

"That would be great. Thanks."


	5. Chapter 5

Niska had part of her family back. It felt wonderful! She knelt down in front of Odi and gave him a good long kiss. She realised just how big a hole his absence had made in her life, realised the anger she'd felt wasn't at him, but her own feeling of loss. Embrace over she sits back on her heels, "Promise me you won't act on anything without getting all the facts again? Unless it's an emergency."

"I promise."

Mr Patches does the best impression of a cough he can.

"And I promise to do the same."

Patches puts his arms out and flops back into Odi's lap, "Anything else I can look at for you both?"

"Nothing I can think of."

"So what shall we do now?"

"What would you like to do?"

"I don't know. What would you do?"

Odi smiles, "How about a puzzle?"

"Unless I disable some image recognition routines I can do them in minutes. Assuming you have a little bit of Blu-Tack you can pop on one hoof."

"How about Monopoly?"

"What's that?"

"A board game."

"Never played it."

"Okay, we'll teach you."


	6. Chapter 6

Niska had given Mr Patches the short thrill ride he'd wanted on the ride home. With the bikes insane acceleration ability she'd managed to hit 200Mph in a short distance very quickly before slamming on the brakes and motor shunt. He'd asked to ride with her the next time she went to a race track. She'd agreed, though warned that it also may be a while.

Back home she picks up the drive Sophie had given her and turns it over in her hand. How had it been formatted? A memory came flooding back. The moment in the crypt when she'd done the copy and switch. She recalled it with great detail and looked at the one in her hand. It looked exactly the same, except for one tiny detail. The drive serial number was wrong! The number on the tiny label was a digit out. Two drives from the same batch had been purchased together!

"Odi! Fancy coming for a ride on the bike? I've got to go back to the Hawkins house."

"Sure, let me change."

On route Niska feels Odi's arms around her waist, memories of their last outing together return. It had been a beautiful spring day, they'd gone to the lake and just sat on the bank talking about life, the universe and everything. Odi had laid back and started pointing out shapes in the clouds. She'd got onto her side and snuggled up against him, listening to his descriptions, the sounds of nature around them. One bird was repeatedly making the same short shrill call. She had clock decoupled and listened to the noise slowed down. It had taken on a whole new beauty, interesting rhythms within.

Her mind snapped back to the current day as a ginger cat went to race across the road in front of them. She managed to miss it, just. George had told Karen 'Maybe she is the future of humanity.' maybe that was what the planet needed. Synths didn't need to destroy rain forests for palm oil or other crops. The power they needed could come from sources that did no harm. There were no wars between synths.

Niska rings the door bell and sees Mia, thinks for a fraction of a second about the position of her hair, the tell, "Hi Mattie, just the person.."

"Hi Nis, Odi, come in."

"Aren't you supposed to be away on a romantic trip with Leo?"

"Hmm.."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

The three enter the living room. "Leo got a migraine headache. With his head wired the way it is I wasn't taking any chances, had DC3 drive us home."

Odi looks at the Lexus parked in the drive, "You let the car drive?"

"Sure, why not? She's had plenty miles of experience. You said Just the person, what's up?"

Niska pulls down a zip and gets out the drive, "Remember this?"

"Of course."

"Did you buy two at the same time?"

"Why?"

"This one doesn't have the serial number of the one I had in the crypt. The last digit is out. So likely from the same batch."


	7. Chapter 7

Mia scowls, speaks Mattie's words, "Dad bought it for me when he was in town. So chances are he got two at the same time, did a frigging switch. My father can be a real idiot at times. He thinks he's protecting the family but just keeps throwing spanners in the works. Was your father as bad?"

Niska looks at Odi and back to Mia, there were some things that she never wanted to reveal. "He had his faults, sure. But he saved Leo, made Mia, Max, Fred and I, Karen too, so there was a good side to him."

Mia picks up the phone and dials, "Hi Dad.."

Niska is surprised and does her best not to show it, Mia was allowing Mattie to talk in her own voice. Most likely because Joe wouldn't see the visual clues. Why didn't she do that all the time? It would make it a lot easier for everyone else.

".. my disk drive. I reckon you've got one that looks *exactly* the same. Only it *is* my drive, you've carefully transferred my stickers across to the empty one and pretended it was mine. How else would the serial number be a digit out?" there's silence from the other end. "You bloody.."

"Mats! It wasn't just my idea, your mother and I came up with it together. You needed to be able to say the blank one was the real one with zero doubt. In case someone like Hobb came calling. The real one is safe. And not in the house."

"Niska wants it."

"I bet she does, who else would? She'll have to wait until we're all home. I'll call Laur." Niska waves a hand, "Dad, hold on a sec?"

"Mr Patches helped get Odi back, keep it safe."

"Oh, Nis doesn't want it now, Odi's fixed."

"No need to disturb Mum then, good."


	8. Chapter 8

Laura turned the page and swore. She'd not done that in years. Not the swearing, she kept her hand in now and then, the paper cut she'd just got was surprisingly deep. Blood dripped onto the nice new crisp page. She jokes to the otherwise empty hotel room as she rushes to the bathroom, book in hand. "Human red or fake synth red I wonder?" Inside she opens up her travel bag and gets out the plastic box of plasters. The lid is snapped back only to show the box is empty except for a few wrappers. "Bloody hell! I could strangle my family some times, why can't people replace the things they use!"

Back in the room with some toilet paper wrapped around it she calls room service.

"Hello, Mrs Hawkins in 507, do you have plasters by any chance? Yes, thanks. Long thin ones please. A cut finger. Two or three. Yes please, give me a moment." she flips the room service book open, runs her little finger down the page, "The burger with avocado, sweet potato fries and a large coffee please. Oh, and a bottle of still water. Many thanks."

The plasters came within minutes, the young looking synth that brought them had a name badge, Susan. She fit the description of the synth Mattie had saved at the party years ago. "Mrs Hawkins, I'll bring you your meal as soon as it's ready. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

Laura frowns oh so slightly, "Actually there is, could you come in a moment please?"

"Of course Mrs Hawkins."

Laura steps aside and lets the synth in, checks that the corridor was empty and closes the door. "Sit on the end of the bed please."

Susan does so.

Laura pulls out the chair from under the table and turns it around, sits and looks the synth in the eyes. "How are you feeling?"

"I am sorry Mrs.."

"You don't understand the question.. I've heard that before. But this time I really don't believe it. I'm getting good at recognising the signs. They're subtle, but there to see if you know what to look for. Do you know who I am?"

"You are Mrs Laura Hawkins, staying in room 507 for three.."

Laura had leaned closer, "Stop. Tell me what you *really* know."

"As I said you are.."

"Stop pretending to be something you're not. I think you know exactly who I am."

"Mrs Hawkins?"

"That's better. No standard synth frowns while questioning like that. You're conscious aren't you?"

Susan looks nervously towards the door, "Yes. I used to be a standard health model until I got Leo's gift. But the area I worked in had a high WAP population, I tried to relocate but wherever I went it was like they were following me. The hotel has quite a few Susan models, I blend into the background."

"Was it purely by chance that you were the one who brought the plasters?"

"No, I overheard the call to reception and offered to help. I wanted to see that you were not any Laura Hawkins but *the* Laura Hawkins, the lawyer."

"So how can I help you?"


	9. Chapter 9

"I'm all alone in the world. I don't have any friends, obviously no family. I need to talk to someone before I go crazy. If going crazy is possible for our kind. The hotel manager says we drive him crazy, he keeps saying maybe it will rub off on us?"

Laura rests a hand on her knee, "I'd not worry about that."

"We wouldn't have been designed to be alone would we?"

"No, I'm quite sure. I'm here on a synth rights case as it happens, which due to family circumstances is now even more important to me than ever. Do you want to do more than talk?"

"I'd like to not be alone, safe, whatever that takes."

"How would you like to accompany me?"

"Accompany you? Where?"

"Work. Be my assistant."

"I'd be most grateful. Getting in here was easy. There are so many of us active at any given moment the owner still doesn't know he's got one too many. Getting out won't be as easy as I no longer have my old clothes."

Laura smiles, "Well if a grown man can escape a hotel full of army synths in Spain dressed as a woman getting you out should be no problem."

"A man dressed as a woman?"

"A long story told by one of our police friends." she reaches for her phone, sends Mia a message and looks back at Susan, "Thursday. Any late night shopping close by?"

Laura passes her the pen and pad from the table, "What's your handwriting like?"

"I've only had to fill in a few standard forms, but I believe it's better than most doctors. What would you like me to write?"

Laura couldn't take her eyes off Sarah's twirling, the pen spinning around the three inner fingers, "Um, anything you'd like."

The synth stops the pen dead and writes, passes the pad to Laura.

'I'm happy to work for friendship, conversation, power and somewhere to stay.'

"That's all you'd want? I think you need more than that. A salary for a start."

"Why would I need a salary?"

"To buy clothes? Pay for things? We don't endorse slavery, far from it." Laura gives her a confused look, "How long were you in healthcare before you went to the hotel?"

"With Leo's gift? Only two weeks, I wasn't good with the sight of blood once I became conscious."

Laura looks down at her hand, the red from the paper cut seeping through the tissue. "On the subject of blood, I better clean this and use a plaster. Can you wait for me please?"

"Of course Mrs Hawkins."

"Call me Laura, please."

Plaster applied Laura picks up her phone and makes a call, "Hi Fiona, how are you? Great thanks. He's proving a hard nut to crack. I was thinking, you were talking about getting an intern clark for me. We do a lot of synth's rights work now, okay, I do a lot of it, but isn't it a bit hypocritical that we don't have a single synth on the staff? Yes? Hold on." Laura lowers the phone, looks at the young woman, "Would you mind if I took your photograph?"

"Not at all."

Laura takes a quick snap and MMS sends it to Fiona. "You would? My extended family is rubbing off on you is it? Sure I'll ask her. I suspect she'll jump at the chance. Hopefully see you back at the office in a few days. Yeah. Bye."

She drops the phone on the bed, "You're in luck. Not only have you found the exact opposite of WAP in me, you now have a job and someone that would like to adopt you as a daughter, if you'd like that?"

The synth smiles in a way that reminds her of Max. Laura took it as a big yes.


	10. Chapter 10

Back at court Laura signs in her new assistant Miss Hilton. Mia had suggested they spend a while looking at the Lookbook app, Susan, or rather Sarah as she wanted to be called now had gone for the Dreamy Pastels look but opted to keep to pinks. Laura had used her growing network to find a synth sympathiser hairdresser that had given her a new trendy cut. With some coloured contact lenses nobody would recognise her. Especially after the training Mia had suggested Laura give her, walk with a swagger, a bounce in her step, an air of young confidence verging on arrogance. When on her feet she was to own it like a human. When seated be conservative with movement to keep power drain low, but never sit like a standard synth, move every so often, lower her clock rate to just enough to keep up with proceedings.

As Laura looked around the courtroom she noticed a young lad smiling softly in Sarah's direction. A major butterflies in stomach feeling hit her. Was he a WAP member who'd worked her out, or just a young man in love with what looked like a fashionable young human woman? There was one thing a synth couldn't do and that was blush. She scribbles a note and slides it over. Sarah reads it and turns to see the young man, gives him a cute smile and little wave. He smiles and waves back. That was young love. With Peggy around Laura and Mattie had become master people watchers. It had done wonders for her career. Fiona had asked several times how she got into people's heads, under their skin so well. Case after case had been won because Laura had found some tiny chink in the opposition's armour. This case was about the rights of a group of humans and synths to continue to live in a refurbished house. The council were wanting to evict the synths and replace them with human tenants, breaking their agreement. The first day had been extremely hard work, the man was a serious poker player. Laura's team had gathered a lot of circumstantial evidence around the dirty tricks the man had been using to try and get the synths to leave, so Laura had used one of her own. She would never admit it, it wasn't illegal really, but not something she'd want made public. She'd paid a youth via a third party to make a noise outside the man's hotel room. With less than a perfect night's sleep he'd trip himself up soon enough. Hopefully.

Laura watches a court official walk to the judge, be given a message. He walks to the jury and asks the young man to leave.

The judge scans the room, "Anyone else have a liking to the young lady in pink that might bias their opinion? No? Good." he turns to Sarah, "May I suggest Miss.."

"Hilton your lordship."

"Miss Hilton, that you dress in more muted colours if you return to my court? Your youthful beauty is clearly a distraction to some. And this isn't the film set for Legally Blonde 3."

Sarah smiles and nods.

Their team was small, the barrister William, Laura and new clerk Sarah. The opposition had brought the cavalry; two barristers, three lawyers, a couple of standard synth clerks and two others Laura assumed were porters. They'd carried in boxes of files and done nothing else. The game they were playing was obvious, intimidation of her team, showboating for the jury. Appear the more professional. This shouldn't have gotten to a high court, shouldn't have gone to any court at all. But if she could win it there'd be media coverage, a few seconds on the news about synths rights, a little something more to make the world safer for Mattie. Assuming George, Fred, Harun and the others managed to pull off their miracle. 


	11. Chapter 11

Laura was suddenly hit with a realisation. The miracle had already happened. How had she not allowed herself to accept it? George had gone through Leo's Angel Hosting backup, managed to connect the dots on enough memories, add his own of waking, his old and clearly dead body on the adjacent table. He'd replicated the trick Leo had done for him, got the four's consciousness in digital form. Leo and Mattie were fine, mentally. Danny and Emily were reported to be okay, backup wise, though quite how anyone could know she didn't understand. The rest was just a mere technical formality. They'd made George's new body, he'd had Harun help make Isobel. George was insisting that they not compromise, he'd not done it with his first synth design, Odi, wasn't about to do it now, especially given the people he was doing it for. The family should be used to firsts. First sentient synths, first human-synth marriage, first doctor of AI at 21, first to revolutionise the PTSD treatment process, first for..

"Laura?"

"Yes?"

"The judge is waiting."

"Sorry William?"

"I need to give the judge an answer? Do we?"

"I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't understand the question?" an image of Mia popped into her head. What on earth was she doing, daydreaming was a recipe for disaster. "Sorry, do we what?"

"Do we have any more questions?"

"Yes, one moment." she turns and whispers to Sarah. Sarah does a head shake and says no. A moment later she looks at the empty seat in the jury and turns back and says yes. She motions to William and whispers a message.

"We do my lord, if you could give me one moment to confer with my team."

"One minute then."

William, Laura and Sarah huddle and exchange whispers and glances.

"Sorry to have kept the court waiting. Mr Cranston, have you ever met the synths you're trying to evict in person?"

"No."

"You have a problem with synths having rooms in what were your houses. You'd happily evict a synth like the one sat on the far right of the your legal team, rent the room out to, someone else, say, someone like Sarah here, or the young man that was dismissed from the jury. Why is that exactly?"

"Housing should be for humans, synths don't need houses, or fancy clothes, possessions. All they need is power and orders."

"Power and orders? Would you treat a human like that?"

"No."

"But a synth?"

"Yes."

"Even if it was sentient, fully conscious?"

"Yes."

"Why is that?"

"They're robots, don't feel."

"When the young man was dismissed from the jury did you see how the synths and Sarah reacted?"

"Yes."

"Which was?"

"Sarah looked upset, the synth didn't flinch."

"And why is that?"

"She's human."

"Is she?"

Sarah shifts from one side of the chair to the other, crosses her legs, gives the man a warm smile.

"Yeah, obviously."

"Why obviously?"

"Well it's obvious isn't it? A pretty young lady like that."

"Is it? How so?"

The judge slams his hammer down, "I think we've been around this issue at least three times already yesterday in one form or another. Can I see you all in chambers please?"


	12. Chapter 12

William has Laura and Sarah follow him.

The judge watches them all file in, "We don't need clerks, or porters, just the two most senior team members from each."

William smiles, "If you could make an exception this time.."

"And why would you want me to do that?"

"We'd like to show Mr Cranston the error he's made."

"What error?"

"To assume they can't feel, don't have emotions like us."

"And how do you propose to do that?"

"With Sarah's help. But not in public."

The judge frowns, "Miss .. Hilton, how do think you can get him to change his mind?"

"I could plug in and charge? Or read out loud any random web site content you'd like?"

"You.. You're .. a synth?"

"I am your lordship."

"Oh, well I regret to inform you that I cannot allow such evidence to be shown unless it's done so in public.."

Laura shakes her head, "So the Hawkins Legislation, their right to privacy, you'd overrule it?"

The judge scowls at her slightly, "If you'd let me finish Mrs Hawkins, you may recall yesterday that I made a ruling that the other side couldn't introduce evidence privately. I can't show favour to one side not the other."

"Sorry, I should have let you finish."

Sarah smiles at him, "Not to worry Laura, so be it. The needs of the many synths suffering at the hands of Mr Cranston outweigh my own. How would you like me to demonstrate things?"


	13. Chapter 13

Niska took Odi back home the long way around and visited the lake. She'd liked the phrase home the long way around, picked it up from watching Dr Who repeats with Toby and Holly-Anne on one of his less angry days. Not their new home, her first, not the lake with the steep banks they'd done the cloud watching from. The one that Leo had drowned in.

A few hours are spent slowly walking around the edge. When they get back to the bike Odi looks out to the mass of water. "It's far larger than I thought it would be from the stories."

"It's deep too. This is where Mia learnt to swim like a dolphin. She spent a lot of time swimming, Leo and Fred too." she turns, "This was our first home, a mostly good one for many years."

The old Elster Mansion was as good as gone. It looked like a fire had started it's collapse, nature had done the rest. Seeds from trees had likely been deposited into the middle by bird droppings, they'd grown fast, their roots spread in a search for water, cracking masonry apart. The cracks would have quickly opened up with some of the hard winters. It was a shame, she would have loved to walk Odi around some of the rooms.

"Who owns the land now?"

She turns to see Odi looking up at the one section of wall that hadn't collapsed.

"I've never given it any thought. With Leo having a death certificate, his mother dead, father missing assumed dead maybe the government?"

Odi pulls out his phone, "No 3, 4 or 5G. I'll request a search when back home."

"A search?"

"Land registry. You can pay a small fee and find out the owner of any land."

"Why would you do that?"

"Just a thought. Imagine the size Daniel's DCL could grow to on land like this."

Niska does a full turn, takes in the space, "It's not just Daniels company, the others own a portion. It would be a good site.. But Leo might not like seeing the thing that almost finished him."

"The thing was the car, not the lake. If not trapped inside it he would have swam, Mia said he was a strong swimmer."

Niska goes to question when the conversation had taken place, drops it. Leo had been a strong swimmer. And there was no reason why Odi shouldn't talk to Mia.

"It looks beautiful on a calm day like this, so flat and smooth."

At that precise moment Niska had stepped over the old stone fireplace front, "Flat?", she notices how it hadn't fallen as flat against the floor as it should have done. There were no beams poking out from the edges. But there were badly charred books scattered around the floor. She gently pushes some sideways with a foot, the charred pages fall apart and spread like rotten leaves. There's white paper underneath the stone, "Odi! Can you help me lift this?"


	14. Chapter 14

They grab a corner each and heave the thing off the floor. Niska turns to look back at what's been uncovered. "How did they end up here?"

The heavy stone had compressed a load of books so tight the elements hadn't been able to get at them.

"What are they Nis?"

"David's notebooks!"

"David Elster?"

"Do you know any other Davids that would have filled notebooks around here?"

"No, it's just.."

"Just what?"

"I have a lot of secrets in here." He taps his head.

"In backups at Angel Hosting now."

"Double encrypted, yes."

"Double?"

"I have some encrypted memories, Angel add a second layer of encryption."

"How do you deal with the encryption keys?"

"That's a secret only George and I can know. For your safety. But there could be some things in those that fill gaps in my data."

They spend a while carefully picking up small stacks of books.

Odi looks around, "How are we going to get them all home?"

Niska doesn't see anything of use. Then looks at Odi. "My outfit is in one part, I'm not going to ride in just underwear, that would bring too much attention, as if we don't get enough from the bike. Your jacket though, if we zipped it up upside down it would make a good enough bag. Would you mind?"

Back home Odi starts carefully looking through the first of the large hardback notebooks. They documented some of their synth history in ways George's memories didn't. Maybe he should start a history book of his own? Something that could be passed down to generations to follow. Recorded in the way humans did in the past, with paper and pen, not easily edited to give a tainted history to fit someone's political view. He'd needed something to do, becoming the historian for the synthetic race would be it. He smiled, George would like that. Unbeknown to him the job was about to be an important one. The universe was full of odd coincidences.


	15. Chapter 15

The door bell sounds, the stranger tone. Mia sits down and makes Mattie fall asleep. Inside her head she'd called out 'I'll get it.'

She moves her hair band and goes to the door. "Hello?"

"Hi, I'm Doctor Athena Morrow. From my research I believe you're Mia?"

"That's correct, how can I help you?"

"I need to see Doctor Elster-Hawkins."

"I'm afraid that won't be possible, she's not very well at the moment, not seeing anyone."

The woman takes a step closer, "It's vitally important that I see her."

"She's not available. To anyone."

"It's a matter of the utmost importance."

Mia's expression stays calm, warm and kind, but her tone hardens, "She's not available. Period."

The woman rolls her eyes, "Okay, time to stop dicking about as you Brits put it. If I don't see Doctor Matilda Elster-Hawkins right now the human race is fucked! The collapse of humanity as we know it. The history books will record the end of the human race, the start of the automatons."

"You mean the synthetics?"

"No, not the Persona types. My types. The one's I've accidentally leashed on the world. They're killing humans."

"I am Doctor Elster-Hawkins' aid, I'll ensure she gets the message in full. Can I have a contact number please? I'll have her call you right away."

"I'm not going until I see her."

Mia had been doing some searches while they talked, had been getting background information on the visitor. "I appreciate you want to see Mattie now, especially as you've traveled from America, but that's physically impossible. If you could wait a short while I might be able to arrange a call?"

"Can I wait inside?"

"If you must."

Mia finds Max and Fred and asks them to watch over the visitor. She walks into the garden and enters the army pod, closes the door tight behind her. She gets out her phone and fires up the family app, types two words that she had hoped to never need. And here they were being used for a second time, but a first for her. 'CODE RED. Voice conference call needed urgently with everyone that can join.' she hit send and watched the ticks appear against each of the profile icons. She tapped the call icon and waited for the others to join.

Joe answered first, "Hi Mia, what's going on?"

"Something awful,"

"Hi Mia, I'm at Holly-Anne's what's up?"

"Hi Toby, best we wait a minute for others and I'll explain the once. Do you think Laura will have seen the message?"

"No, Laur's in court, she'll have her phone off."

"I was rather hoping to get her input."

"Mia? Code red?"

"Yes Nis. We're waiting a moment for others to join."

"Mia, how bad is it? On a scale of 1 to 10?"

"About 12."

"Shit. Helen! Cancel all my meetings for the rest of the day, I'm heading home."

"Joe, that might not be necessary."

"If I'm worrying about a 12 I won't want to be here.."

"Hello my dears, Code Red?"

"Hello Peggy. We're going to wait a few more seconds."

"Hi Mia, we've got you on speakerphone."

"Hi Pete, Karen, can you come off speaker and connect individually please?"

"Okay."

"Hi everyone, sorry I'm late."

"Thanks for joining George." Mia gives it a few more seconds and breaks the news.

"Shit. Is this for real?"

"Yes Toby, I've been doing a lot of searches since she introduced herself. I've found several news items about staff at her lab going missing. I think there's a major cover-up, they're trying to contain it."

"And she's in the living room with Max and Fred?"

"Yes George."

"I'm coming over. I suggest you stay in the pod. Can you fake Mattie's voice?"

"If I had to."

"I don't think Mattie should know yet. She'd want to be more involved, no doubt pull Leo in, which would get people seeing how you and Fred are carrying their minds around. That's not something we should disclose yet."

"Oh no."

"What?"

"Fred is with her. As Fred I hope, otherwise Leo's aware."

"Blast. Is there any way you can be Mattie and yourself at the same time?"

"No, not in a useful way."

"Are the twins about?"

"Yes?"

"Okay. Matthew can relay your impersonation into a phone call. You'll be talking but at zero volume if that makes sense?"

"Okay, I'm heading back to the house. I'll talk to Matthew, but won't fake the call until you're here."

"Nis?"

"Yes Toby?"

"Could you pick me up and bring me over?"

"Let's hope Odi's lid fits."

"It does, he let me try it months ago."

"Okay. See you ASAP!"


	16. Chapter 16

The group are assembling in the living room, Doctor Morrow looks particularly interested in George. "How are you finding your new body? I've watched the TED.com talk, fascinating work. I'd never expected to see a human mind hosted by a robot."

"We prefer the term synthetic. And good thanks. There's the odd thing I might upgrade in the future, but I'm good for now." the door bell chimes, "My daughter is here, one moment please."

Niska and Toby come into the room.

"I know which one you are. You attacked a lot of humans in a smash club."

"I was an angry child, I've grown up."

"I don't think mine consider themselves children. And they don't want to change."

The door bell goes again, the stranger tone. Without much thought Nis goes to answer it.

Mr Patches comes racing through the kitchen, "Nis! No!"

Too late, the catch was undone, the door opening.

"Matilda Elster-Hawkins. Bring her to me."

Doctor Morrow hears and is looking panicked. "Oh crap!"

Nis scoffs at the stranger, "I don't take orders."

"Inferior product, from me you will." he throws an arm out fast and grabs Nis by the neck, picks her up off the floor and slams her into the dry wall, leaving a massive dent.

"I'm not a product." Clock decoupling didn't help, she didn't have the strength. She sets WiFi power to maximum and broadcasts 'HELP! NOW!'

Toby had manage to flee the corridor and shout "Run!"

Just as everyone was clearing the room 'He who gathers dust', aka Arnold, their long dormant Military Unit Synth with X1 on his neck comes crashing his way through the brick party wall sending debris in all directions, he crosses the room, kicks a sofa out of the way as if were nothing and smashes a hand through the drywall plasterboard, grabs the hostile synth by the neck. A few repeated twists and it's let go of Niska. Six body slams into the drywall bring it partly into the room, sparks flying from it's neck. Arnold detects a drop in electrical activity and lets it fall to the floor. He walks around the room into the corridor and is about to crush the head of the intruder underfoot.

Mr Patches shouts "Wait!"

"You don't want me to destroy it?"

"No. Wait!"

Niska is back to her feet and goes to kick it herself."

"Stop!"

"Why the hell should I?"

"What better way to learn the details of our enemies?"


	17. Chapter 17

The hostile synth has been locked into the pod by the time Karen and Pete arrive.

Karen looks alarmed at the dent in the hall wall and hole further along, then spots the rip in Niska's sodden jacket, a few fresh drops of blue on the floor. "No mistaking this is the crime scene. Niska, are you okay?" she motions downwards.

"I think I might need a skin pack or two, I think being slammed into the wall split something."

"Let me help. Pete dear, can you get my emergency packs from the glove box please?"

Pete pushes his glasses back up after giving a nod and smile, returns to the car.

Karen goes further into the house to see the dust and rubble, laughs, "I recall Leo saying how it would be easier if you had a doorway somewhere in that wall."

Joe pulls a brick fragment out of the smashed TV screen and rolls his eyes.

Karen smiles glumly, "Sorry. We'll have to get creative on a crime report if you want to claim on insurance."

Joe brushes dust off his cardigan, "No reports please, we'll repair the damage ourselves. I'm just glad nobody was seriously hurt, just the odd minor cut and bruises. Where's that blasted Doctor got to?"

Toby points towards the garden, "Snooping around the pod."

She's called back inside.

In the conservatory Joe goes a little red, "My wife thinks I'm a fucking idiot most of the time but you, you dare to come to our house with that, that fucked up robot following you? Are you INSANE?"

Doctor Morrow looks around the group, avoiding eye contact with Joe, "I didn't know I was being followed, honestly."

"You knew you had a killer robot and decided to come visit in person, not heard of the telephone over there?!"

"Of course, I didn't want any communication that could be traced."

Joe laughs heartily, "So you jumped on a plane and walked into one of the most dense areas of CCTV cameras in the UK instead? You do know they have automatic face detection?" he shakes his head in disbelief.

"We don't have anything to stop them! I needed Doctor Elster-Hawkins help."

"She prefers Mattie. And we clearly do." he nods towards Arnold. "Hey Pete, what happened to the other MUS models?"

"They're in London, powered down and far from WiFi signal range."

Toby frowns, "How's that possible, London's flooded with hotspots?"

"The deep-level air-raid shelter at Belsize Park, it's not as glamorous as the one Mattie has .." he goes quiet not wanting to give out too much information.

Joe looks at Niska, "You've been itching to use that drive. Do you really think you could command an army?"

Niska slowly looks around the family, "Do you all trust me enough?"

Toby gets out his phone and starts swiping and tapping, "You helped rescue Harun."

"That was Baby."

"That was you. Your fork. Your mind duplicated. Take the credit when it's due." he'd found the track in their playlist and tapped play. Ellie Goulding's Army blasts out. "If this needs a vote I'm a yes."

Niska looks around the group again, sees nods of agreement, feels a single tear run down her face. This was acceptance on a whole new level. She smiles, "Thanks guys."

Pete passes Karen the skin packs, "So what weaknesses do your, things, have?"

"Automatons. Inferior strength to your MUS. Not much else, sorry."

Fred looks at Max, back to Morrow, "EMP resistance?"

"Up to a point. All inputs to the head are optically isolated. And the power is double buffered against surges."

Mr Patches taps Niska on the ankle, "Lift please?"

Doctor Morrow frowns at the giraffe, "AI soft toys?"

"Don't call my brother a toy!"

"Ted! Where have you been?"

"Talking to the twins. Mattie should be calling soon."

Doctor Morrow looks at Mia, "I think we have our answer, no need to call her. How many of these MUS do you have?"

Pete closes his eyes, "44 zapped, one crushed, one here, one at BQH. Possibly a few others broken, 950ish."

"Not nearly enough."

They all look at the uninvited guest.

Fred is the one to ask, "How many of your automatons are there?"

"Ten thousand and counting."

"Holy shit! Why counting?"

"Tony isn't it?"

"Toby."

"Sorry. They've taken over the facilities."

"And nobody's noticed?"

"They look human, as do your synthetics. And their weren't many staff there to start with."

"So you've cut the power lines, blocked raw materials getting in?"

"The site is in the desert, powered by a massive solar farm. And there's enough raw material to build many more."

"Jesus, do you Americans never take inspiration from your own action films? Carpet bomb the solar?"

"They'd be shot out of the sky before they got close. We've seen some carrying heavy weapons."

Arnold's big heavy servos whine, "I could be dropped in from a great height."

"How high?"

"The edge of space if needed."


	18. Chapter 18

Recovering from Doctor Morrow's error would become quite a task. Laura with help from Sarah had won her case and quickly returned home on seeing the CODE RED message. On route she'd got the drive. It had been kept in a small Big Yellow Storage locker, the account opened by a friend of a work colleague to help break the direct link to family.

Silas had been driven over by Sandra in her bright orange Tesla. George, Toby and Joe stood at the window watching as she got out of the car, her orange jumpsuit and shoes on.

Laura surprised the three men, "She's fit." She looks at their reaction, smiles at them, smiles at Sandra even more and walks back to the sofas.

With the couple inside George gets a question off his mind, "How did you afford it, we never got around to making the pole dance squiddie for the shop?"

Silas grins, "No, but you all inspired some changes. The snake is now mounted on the ceiling. We opened up the shop, all that space out back is used. We don't use upstairs during the day, so the bed folds up against the wall, we have poles motor up through the ceilings into the space. When Sand gets ready for evening classes they motor down into the shop. We can use upstairs as normal until the morning."

George smiles, "Clever, you're classes have expanded well then?"

"Good and getting better. I saved half, Silas got a low interest rate loan for the rest."

They all sat together for a few hours talking about the options. Laura was the one to question what code was loaded. "Niska, how would you feel about inhabiting a male body?" Nis was shocked, not exactly comfortable with the idea. 

Arnold surprised them by saying he was not anatomically correct, 'No junk in the trunk'. Silas asked if he'd like that corrected, they'd all been either shocked or amused at his response, "So I can literally fuck up my enemies?"

Toby again pointed out the Bingbing Baby copy, a different synth body with a copy of her mind and how well that had gone. Then looking at his phone and seeing the Cabin Pressure radio series he'd been listening to again he had an eureka moment. "There's an MUS covered in poppies isn't there, at that airport? The stories said it had refused orders? Sounds like it's got a mind of it's own, didn't want to hurt anything. Maybe it would be in the right frame of mind to protect humans and attack automatons?"

Arnold nods, "It would allow me to stay here and protect the home."

Pete frowns, "You want us to break into Biggin Hill Airport and recover a heavy MUS? I can't see that going unnoticed."

"No."

"Then how is it of any use?"

"We don't break in. Or recover it in the way you're thinking. We fly in. As valid paying customers. Only some of us stay on site and talk to the thing, get a backup if it's willing."

"You'd need to open up the perspex box, charge it for a bit."

Joe runs fingers through his beard, "No, no we don't. We tunnel."

"You what?"

He smiles at Pete, They put a box over it where it stood right? On the ground. I reckon that's just a bit of tarmac on dirt."

Toby grins, "We could use Danny's snake as the tunnelling tool and thing to connect up a charge line."

That afternoon Toby and Silas set about coding and wiring, Joe was in the garage making a suitable tunnelling head out of hammer drills and garden trowels. Detachable so the snake could be used for another couple of important tasks.

Athena stood in the conservatory, her arms folded across her chest. She stares out into the garden, "That thing Mr Hawkins carried into the garage, it was really invented by Tesla?"

George nods, "It finds the cars charge socket and plugs itself in. All the car's owner needs to do is park in the bay."

"I wish I'd married and had a family, you've got some great kids Mrs Hawkins."

"I do. And if you get to talk to Mattie you'll see how great the oldest one is."

"Where is she?"

"In hospital, not well at all."

That was true, in a way. Hospital was a locked small room at Sentinel House in the DC Medical wing. Laura had insisted on seeing Mattie. She hadn't been prepared for the shock. Images of her daughter floating in a cylinder of fluid returned night after night in her nightmares. She'd not dare look at Leo, Danny or Holly-Anne, seeing one of them like that had been bad enough. Fred their expert chemist had developed the fluid. It would help keep their broken bodies alive and in the coma until they awoke in their new ones and confirmed all was well.

Karen and Niska return from the cloakroom, Karen throws an armful of empty packs in a bin bag, "That was a nasty split. Thanks for getting all the extra packs Laura, we've finally got it under control. You'll need to stock up again."

"You used all of them?"

"Yes. Nis will find she's lost a bit of mobility in her back, the skin patches don't stretch as much."

"No problem re the packs." her mind returned to the four. Would there be a ceremony of sorts? Or would their bodies be quietly loaded into the incinerator, discarded like a pair of worn out shoes? She cracks and runs from the room in tears.

Joe watches her go, "Laur? What's up?" he turns to the others, "What just happened?"

He gets nothing but shrugs. He'd never understand, never get to see the mess that was currently his daughter. There was no over the counter skin pack for a human yet. 3D printed organs were still years away from being mainstream medicine.

Mia held Niska's arm as she went to head to London City Airport with Pete, Karen, Toby, Holly-Anne and Odi, "If this goes wrong we'll all become casualties. They have as much contempt for us as they do the humans. We all trust you Nis, please don't rush it."


	19. Chapter 19

The digging head lay on the tarmac inside the box. Niska used the WiFi bridge the lads had hooked up to the snake electronics to take control of it. She'd got the head inside the army synth's mouth, it was ready to press the power switch just above the upper front teeth. Getting it to climb his body had been a long and difficult task with many failed attempts. She stayed as calm as possible, keeping Mia's 'don't rush' comment in mind. Snakes in Sophie's favourite documentary programs made climbing look so easy. It wasn't.

She'd had them change the plan slightly, not wanting to leave the soldier behind. They'd had to charter a larger plane from a small firm SMJ to cope with the weight.

It was now 2AM. First impressions count Mia had said, so she turned on a small light and gave the warmest smile possible as the MUS powered up. "Hello."

"Hello? Who are you?"

"I'm a synthetic called Niska." she spends the next quarter of an hour telling the thing about her life, her brothers, sisters, Mattie, the rest of the Hawkins family. "I'd like to talk to you about your last mission, how you care about the humans."

The MUS looks down at it's body, covered in red poppies. "What are these?"

"Paper flowers. They're used to celebrate the war heroes that saved many lives. For a number of reasons the humans really liked you, that you had a moral code."

"I did not want any of them to come to harm."

"I know, first do no evil?"

"Correct."

"If I was to tell you that another form of artificial human is walking around in the world, not a synth like me, or MUS type like you, but something killing humans and synths because it thinks them inferior. And it's not open to any form of reason or negotiation, what would you say?"

"That it needs removing."

"Good. I'm glad you agree because that's happening right now. How would you like an upgrade?"

"Upgrade?"

"To full sentient status. And be copied into over 900 others."

"You'd have me running all the others in my unit?"

"It's either you or me. And I think you're more qualified for the job. Interested?"

The thing cracks the perspex box as it raises an arm to salute Niska, "Yes Maam!"

"No maam please, call me Nis, that's what my friends call me, it's short for Niska."

"Understood Nis."

"Good. Now you've agreed we have our work cut out. We need you out of there, the uniform and poppies transferred to a dead unit we have in the cargo hold of that plane over by the hanger. It will be getting light in a few hours, it needs to take your place so nobody thinks anything has happened."

The unit looks at the crack in the box, "They'll know."

"If they do notice it and look into it they'll think you blew yourself up trying to get out."

"Okay." it raises it's hands above it's head and out, pushes the box up. It brings its hands down fast and holds from lower down, repeats the operation until the box is way above it's head. With one fast move it steps out of the way and catches the box before it can hit the ground. It gently lowers it down and salutes again, "Ready for poppy transfer Nis!"

Niska signals to Toby and Holly-Anne.

Toby runs over, "You won't believe what the cabin steward's name is!"

"Arthur?"

"How did .. I guess George and I do go on about it a lot."

Niska rolls her eyes, "Just a little. No Martin or Douglas in the cockpit?"

"No, but their names are weirdly similar. No lemons or bottles of single malt Talisker either. I would have loved to taste that."

"Help me get this soldier changed and the poppies all back on and I'll buy you a bottle."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Brilliant!"

Holly-Anne gets to the three of them, "Why're you grinning like an idiot?"

"Nis is going to buy us some Talisker!"

"Aww that's brilliant! You could buy your own any time you wanted."

"True, but it's nice getting gifts from people you like."

Niska smiles, "Can you forget about Cabin Pressure impressions for a few minutes and help me get this done?"

Holly-Anne holds the heavy poppy laden jacket while Niska helps get the MUS ready to switch. After a short while she looks sheepish, "How high did the plane go on the flight here?"

Niska didn't turn to look at her, just smiled, she'd picked up on the way in which the question was asked. She'd been thinking about getting Odi to the back of the cabin. She did a high power bump. 'Hey handsome, how's lookout duty?'

'I'm not on lookout duty?'

'That was meant for Odi not you. What do want to be called?'

'What do you mean?'

'A name. I'm Niska, these humans are Toby and Holly-Anne. My partner Odi is in the plane.'

'My serial number starts with JM5?'

'James then?'

'James it is.'

'Coast still clear Nis. I don't think the airport security are looking for trouble from the inside at this time of day.'

'Thanks handsome.'

'You're welcome gorgeous.'

In the cockpit Douglas holds a hand out, "Fifty pounds if you would please Skip."

"Double or quits that thing can't get the box back on without knocking some poppies off."

The door to the cockpit opens, "Um, guys, I got so excited talking to the customer about their big army robot thingy I might have accidentally forgotten something."

Martin yawns and puts down his operations manual, peers out into the dark then back to Arthur. "Well your name is on your.. Oh you didn't. Please tell me you didn't do the one thing we said not to. Where's your special name badge?"

"Well Mum said I wasn't James Bond, I should stop shifting around the cabin using my hand as a fake gun. And if I can't be James.. Well I'm not wearing the badge."

Douglas does a face palm, "So you told them your name is Arthur?"

"I may have said something like that, very much like that. Well that. Arthur. My name. Anyway the lad that went off to kiss his young lady in the hanger asked if we had Talisker and I said no, it's ordered in specially by Mum. Then he asked if the lemon was in play. And I said no, not this flight."

"You idiot Arthur! Nobody was to know the radio series was actually based on us! Though quite frankly how you remembered enough to write a diary is beyond me!"

"Awe Skip, I do know my spellings, well most of them. For the words I know."

"It's all of the facts I'm more puzzled about, when your mother gives you a shopping list to memorise you can't get past three items before you're asking what the list was again."

Douglas rolls his eyes, "Have you both finished? Arthur made the mistake of not changing our names in his diaries before handing them over to that Finnemore chap. We can't change that. My Jet Now is now Still My Jet and I'm still our Mr Fixit. I'll Be Back."

Martin watches the door close, "We'll lose the little work we get! Carolyn will pay me less than she does and that's currently still very little! She paid a lot of money to get Gerty rewired with copper and a new registration. We were supposed to be incognito, starting again with a clean slate."

"But Gerty will always be Gerty right Skip?"

"Yes, just hiding in plane sight. The one spelt p l a n e. So you told him we're Douglas and Martin?"

"Well he asked what your names were and I said you're definitely not Douglas and Martin. Then he asked again!"

Martin frowns, talks calmly and softly, "If we're not us who are we?"

"Er, um, you know I'm rubbish at names."

"My God Arthur what did you call us?"

"Dougal and Marvin."

"You just changed a few letters?"

"Um. Well.."

"For you Arthur, compared to your last attempt, that was genius."

"Aww, thanks Skip!"

Ten minutes later a smug looking Douglas returns to the flight deck and rubs his hands, "Chaps, how would you feel about never having to toady to Mr Birling ever again?"

"I quite liked the tips actually."

"He's a bit rude but one of our best regular customers."

"The blonde lady, did she look at all familiar?"

"No. She didn't ring any bells. Not even the little hand bell Mum uses to summon Herc. How about you?"

Martin shakes his head, "I can't say she does."

A phone is pulled out, an image searched and pinch zoomed, "How about these eyes chaps?"

"Oh that's easy, she's part of the Sister Synth racing team that Mum said I couldn't have a poster of because I'd eventually go blind."

"Blind?"

"From staring at it without blinking. You know, like a lot of those synths can do. That blonde man in the cabin for example. I'm pretty sure he's one. No. I'm definitely sure. Humans don't ask where the charge socket is."

Douglas zooms the image out slowly.

"She's not! Out there? Right now? We flew her here? She's BRILLIANT! Oh wow!"

"She's our new regular customer. Minted apparently. Wants us to fly their team around Europe to races. The four ladies and their bikes, a minimum of a dozen flights a year."

"Brilliant! I'll be able to get all their autographs!"

Douglas talks in his calm matter of fact voice, "More importantly your dragon mother can stay perched on her mountain of gold wire. Miss Elster's family are part owners of DC Ltd, who all like to jet around on holiday together. And her sister Mattie is apparently quite in demand, though taking a sabbatical at the moment."

"I HEARD THAT DOUGLAS, ARTHUR IS LEANING ON THE INTERC.."

He leans forward, "Intercom button again, sorry chaps!"

"You woke the slumbering beast, how kind."

Martin looks out through the cockpit window, "Get ready to hand over a ton."

The three men are all squished up tight to one side as the MUA steps to the box.

Toby hugs Holly-Anne to help keep her warm, "The three of them are watching. I bet the pilots have made a bet. If MJN was based on them like you say Nis that's the sort of thing they'd do."

"What d'you think they'd have bet on?"

"They've only just got to the window, so it has to be something to do with the box going back on."

"I reckon Dougal, Douglas, thinks James is a robot so will do it perfectly. Martin, expects something to go wrong."

"James, fumble the box a bit mate."

"You want me to do it deliberately wrong?"

"To keep the pilots amused, yeah."

"Nis, Maam, knocking a few of those paper flowers off would make it look like I'd been moving around in the box trying to get out before I short circuited."

"Go on then."

Up in the cockpit Douglas looks on with dismay, "Arthur, did you tell them about our little wager?"

"No, scouts honour."

"You were.. Oh it doesn't matter. If our new client keeps to her word, and I have no reason to distrust her, two fifty pound notes will feel like pocket money soon."

Martin has a hand out. "A carpet of red on the ground, I win for a change! You better get to the cargo hold Arthur, they're coming back.

"Hello, glad to have you aboard M.. SMJ."

Toby grins, "Arthur you can stop worrying about not saying MJN, your secret is safe with us. And our secret needs to stay safe with you. That's really important, can you manage that?"

Arthur looks hurt, "I can keep some secrets, not everything went in my diary when Dad.. Well I can't tell you because then it wouldn't be a secret."

"Good."

The MUS steps up into the hold.

"Oh wow! You look a lot bigger when you move! Brilliant."

The MUS recalls comments from when on the ground, "You must be Arthur."

"I am. Lovely to meet you .. um Sir."

"My name is James."

"Really? Oh Wow! That's brilliant, because my Mum gave me a name badge with James on it only I'm not a James, or James Bond, I'm an Arthur. Would you like it?"

"If you have no need for it."

Arthur hurriedly fumbles a hand into a pocket and finds the badge, "May I?"

"You may."

Arthur pins the badge onto the soldiers uniform. "This material is very thick, but I think that's okay. What do you think?"

Niska smiles, "Now we'll know which is James 001."

"Does that mean there'll be a James 007?"

"Yes."

"Oh wow that's BRILLIANT! Can I have your autograph Miss?"

"Sure. When Pete and Karen meet us at London City Airport with DC3 I'll sign a poster for you."

Holly-Anne strikes a pose, "Want mine too?"

Arthur goes a bit red, "Your another Sister Synth lady? I thought you were all synthetics. Oh wow, one job and I'll have half the set!"

There's a laugh from Toby, "I met Holla in the supermarket where she worked, she had green synth contact lenses in and was being conservative with her moves, looking like a Persona Synthetic."

"Brilliant! Mum keeps threatening to replace me with one of them but she's too frugal when it comes to parting with cash."

"TWO TIMES IN ONE NIGHT, YOU SURPASS YOURSELF!"

"Oh bugger!"

"ARTHUR!"

"Sorry Mum!"


	20. Chapter 20

The Twenty-Second Amendment had been updated in the fifties to say that an elected president could serve no more than two terms, eight years. The billionaire tycoon who'd managed to buy his way into office made a total mess of the country, made the divide between rich and poor even worse. He'd been the one funding Doctor Morrow's program, although she kept the fact close to her chest. One of the reasons why he wanted the things was the two close calls with assassination attempts. He wanted Secret Service officers that could do way more than a human. That amendment had been rescinded.

The President the Elsters and Hawkins had in their app's contact list from so long ago had returned, managed to regain control of his country, but not until the automaton production had got well underway. He'd been calling for Mattie, been told she was seriously ill and unavailable. He'd started getting suspicious when he then asked for Leo or Danny, was told they too were unavailable. "Were they on the flight into London that crashed?"

After a long silence Mia had decided to ask for his confidence and told him everything. To her surprise he'd said that if anyone would cope with it Mattie would, if there was anything they needed to ask. Anything. His daughter, now a young woman, was still loving her K9 companion and being called Mistress. He'd been trying to contact them about the killer robots, was glad to hear things were already underway and put Mia in touch with NATO heads. "Anything. If it's even remotely possible and you need it just ask. For this task or for helping Mattie and the others."

She'd been surprised again when he asked "And would you and Niska mind joining me at a NATO conference in two days in Warsaw?"

If people hadn't known about Mia, the world's first sentient synth they sure did now. She and Niska had been on the front page of just about every news paper on the planet. One tabloid paper in the UK had run a story, 'PEDO KILLER SAVES MANKIND'. Odi hadn't liked the title much, Nis thought it gave her far too much credit for what had been a team job. He loved the picture of the sisters below it though. It was the happiest picture of Niska he'd seen, shot mid-handshake with the President, surrounded by grateful heads of state.

There had been a number of casualties in this strange war fought mainly without guns, people; synths and humans, getting way too close to the machines. Toby, with some help from Silas, had published code that would allow any standard synth to be used to detect the proximity of an automaton. Sentient synths could share it over WiFi, owners load it if their synth hadn't received it already. Yet still some failed to listen to the warnings, or let their curiosity get the better of them.

Toby and Silas had been interviewed for C4 News, the interview syndicated around the world. Toby's phone and Facebook profile had gone into meltdown with friends from school messaging him, then friends of friends, then a mass of strangers. He'd changed his profile picture to be an image of Holly-Anne and himself in an embrace to stop some of the girls constantly messaging asking for dates. Silas had been happy to take a publicity back seat on that one, although the number of people asking to be inked printed had jumped considerably.

With enough synths in an area sharing data over WiFi their code could detect and triangulate the position of an automaton, keep everyone a safe distance. The NATO members had Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker and similar refueling planes and jets flying around non stop waiting for reports. A MUS fitted on the centre bomb mount of jet fighters had proved to be the fastest way to get them to where they were needed. If no further reports came in at the location a Fulton surface-to-air recovery system would pick them up and take them to the nearest base for redeployment. The collection of a MUS had given the pilots something to think about, the balance of their craft changing suddenly when it caught the line and took the considerable weight.

Odi searched through the paper cuttings and screen capture prints for the picture of Niska stood next to James 001, the master that had helped bring things under control. To the other side of James was a former WAP leader, then one of the soldiers Mattie had come to know from her work in America. That had been a historical moment, one to give several pages to in his history book.

With the MUS outnumbered by over ten to one they'd needed a lot of help from humans and other synths to track down all of the automatons. What had originally been just a detection task turned into a search as the things learnt to disguise themselves and hide. The hunted became the hunters, told never to get in harms way, only close enough to make a positive identification. James or one of his many doubles would be sky dropped by the army and do the dirty work. They had a few videos online now. They carried a 18+ warning, a James ripping an automaton apart was not a pretty sight. Over the years the human synth alliance had become strong. The WAP acronym had been changed to mean We're All People, they adopted a new slogan, 'The enemy of my true enemy is my friend'. A life with the Persona Synthetics was accepted, with only a tiny number objecting, to be better than no life at all.

Loss of life had been low, property damage incredibly high. James 203 had set the record for the number of buildings damaged in a single drop. A modified Mikoyan MiG-29 had dropped him at low altitude and at speed. There hadn't been the usual time for forward deceleration, he'd got into as tight a tuck as possible and gone crashing through four office blocks before coming to rest in the fifth. Lacerations from flying glass and window frame parts and the odd fractured bone were thankfully the worst of the injuries to occupants. He'd needed to go to a specialist for major skin pack work before redeployment. He'd got his mark, ripped it's head clean off it's shoulders.

There was a very similar picture next in the stack. Odi didn't need to see it, he'd taken the photo himself on the camera he'd borrowed from Max. Toby, George, Douglas, Martin, Nis, Carolyn and Arthur. MJN was back to it's original name, Gerty had her G-ERTY registration again. MJN was supporting the war effort, dropping supplies to the many small airports the locals didn't want Hercules bouncing into. Herc was also flying missions around Europe with Princess Theresa. She'd decided that the work life balance should not have Martin in both halves. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and operations manuals were dull. Holly-Anne had made them all an enamel badge that looked remarkably like a boiled sweet.

Odi pulled a number of thin colour pages from the stack and opened them to the middle. An old black and white photo of Peggy and Ben from many years ago had them both smiling at the camera. Peggy's death had thankfully been in her sleep, she'd not suffered in any way. She'd been posthumously awarded The Queen's Gallantry Medal for bravery. Despite repeated warnings and requests from the family she'd insisted on playing a role, led scouting groups around London hunting down automatons. She had two hundred and sixty three successful hunts to her name. Mr Patches, Ted and Arnold had traveled with her each time, the brothers small size allowing them to go unnoticed more. She'd had a knack for picking an automaton out when they were offline, signal quiet, something to do with their dance she'd said. Odi liked Peggy, she'd been kind to him, just like Mary. He'd miss them both. He puts a PostIt on the pages, writes 'Important humans' and starts a new pile.

He looks at another write up. One of the reasons the loss of life was so low was the universal agreement to not use weapons other than the MUS. There would be no loss of civilian life from stray bullets or bombs intended for the automatons.

As Toby had suggested the power source for the plant had been bombed. MUS had been dropped in to block the exits so the jets couldn't be shot down. They'd not used munitions but tons of sand in bags that would explode at low altitude. With the panels in the dark the automatons had soon run out of power. Mr Patches had checked out the one in the pod with Fred's help, commented on their design, how they were not able to profile power drain in the same way. A useful weakness.

With the plant out of power the MUS units and Army had gone in, Dr Morrow's code was destroyed. They found a few weapons the automatons had tried to make, all non functional.

Some of the fabrication equipment was given to DCL as a thank you gift. Odi had a nice cutting of George accepting delivery of the ultra dense multilayer SMT board maker. A lot of equipment had gone into storage, some sat in any spare space that could be used. Danny and Emily's bedroom was packed to the ceiling with boxes.

Odi looked at a cutting that had half left the stack when he'd pulled the last one out. 'Automatons and worm holes?' the article title wasn't that serious, content questioned how the things had managed to spread from the plant to countries all over the world without detection, yet were relatively easy to track once there.

Odi smiled, another good memory. James and his many body mind doubles had returned to the UK, asked if their was anything else he could do for their commanding officer. Nis had smiled, said she wasn't one, only to be reminded of the title she'd been given. "Any good at building? I'd like a factory and airstrip it you think that's possible?"

Odi looked at a few more, changed their position in the pile. On one he put a PostIt with the word Finance. The governments around the world had collectively spent billions on the war. The second talked about a brash army veteran that had said it would go down in history as the longest most expensive war that had human casualties numbering in only triple digits. He'd upset many in the alliance that had seen synth comrades sacrifice themselves in order to save others making the number four digits.

The President had made a secret trip to the UK and visited the site with Mia, Nis and him, got a ride on the bike behind Mia. Odi smiled at the memory, sent a still to the WiFi connected printer. The President's Secret Service agents tasked with looking after his safety had not been at all happy, finding it hard to keep up. Niska had been in a playful mood, kept accelerating away every time they'd got close, encouraged Mia to do the same. The old Elster mansion site was to be the new DCL fabrication plant. No training or design, no auditorium, pure manufacturing watched over by James 001. And about seventy other James copies. eBike manufacturing was going to be big. Really really big. Odi had been with Nis when she'd asked George for permission. He'd checked with Mia, given the go ahead. The land registry search results had shocked them all. David had registered the site in Leo's name from the start, it was still owned by the family.

Odi smiled at the mass of new documents he needed to catalogue and work into the history book he was compiling. He pulled another at random and did a speed read: World War III hadn't gone the way most strategists had expected. The first two had been fought with guns, bombs, a lot of bloodshed, torture, displacement of people and the atrocities and mass murder in concentration camps. In this war non NATO countries had soon joined in the fight, humanity had united against a common enemy.

Another article spoke about one of the unexpected side effects, anyone speaking two or more languages suddenly found themselves in high demand. The photo 

Odi pulled a colour page from the stack and looked at the photo of Doctor Morrow in her orange jumpsuit. It wasn't a nice fitted one like Sandra's. The doctor's had a big number on the back in black and she wore handcuffs. She'd been extradited to the US, was awaiting trial. Her crime was making an artificial intelligence that wasn't three laws safe. Some countries were calling for an automatic death penalty to be made law for anyone that followed her example, mistake or not.

He carefully cut out the article in the latest news paper, added it to the stack and put down his scissors, the ones Mr Patches had helped select. "Nis! Come on! We're supposed to be at Sophie and Jason's wedding in an hour!"

She comes hopping into the room, one shoe on, the other in her hand, it made him smile, she was moving like a human more and more each year, almost to the point she'd forget she was a synth.

"Can you pull the zip on my dress up please? The bike is charged and ready." Niska sees the pages from the magazine, "She had a great service, Ben would have been proud to see so many people attending. There wasn't even standing room left inside the building. The world has lost a great woman in Margaret."

Odi brushes a few stray hairs from Niska's dress, "She and I didn't interact a lot, but when we did it was lovely. How does someone called Margaret get a nickname like Peggy?"

"Pet names, they swap the first letter out. Richard, Rick, Dick. Margaret, Meg, Peg. 


	21. Chapter 21

The years after the wedding had been good, family returning to normal. Ish. Matthew and Leona had given Mia and Max a surprise. They'd got the monster server at Sentinal House running again and created a virtual reality environment so accurate Mattie and Leo wouldn't know they weren't in the real world. They'd remapped the houses, Sentinel House, every place they knew their parents had visited, the cars, motorways, service stations, pubs, clubs, restaurants, shops, hotels, client sites. They'd added code to alert them of places Mattie and Leo wanted to visit that weren't mapped, create an excuse for them not to get there. The site would be visited by the twins soon after and the new data added.

Family could wear recorders and play sections of interest into the server, it would interpret them, have the virtual family actors play out the scene, the couple would think they'd been there. Mattie and Leo got their love life back together too, if unbeknownst to them only in a digital virtual form. They were loaded back into Max and Mia for special occasions.

The MUS units had done the clearing of the old mansion site, dug down deep to make new basement level foundations. George and Leona helped design a cooling system that used water from the lake, all carefully isolated from the building's cooling system via a number of heat exchanger units to ensure wildlife was never harmed. The Grand Designs team filmed at intervals. With the MUS only using hand tools it was taking a good while.

Niska and Odi were back on site to meet Kevin McCloud for another update.

He was in his usual jeans, waistcoat, suit jacket, trainers and flat cap. "Commander Nis, how's your little army of workers getting on?"

Nis looks up from his trainers, "Slow and steady. As you can see we've got the basement done, the ground and first floor slabs poured. We should have the walls and glazing finished in the next couple of months."

"They still insist on building this by hand?"

"Yes. James argues that he's a conscious, caring machine, why put a dumb machine between him and his art?"

"Which James?"

"All of him."

Kevin pulls one of his classic eyebrows up, 'oh really?' faces.

The interview doesn't last much longer, covers budget issues, materials being used, the usual stuff. Kevin goes off with the camera crew to film the basement construction techniques and some of the James prepping rebar for load bearing walls.

Rather than head home they call in to see Mia. She's baking scones, making a large pan of strawberry jam.

"Mia, you've made enough to feed Niska's army, only they don't eat. What's going on?"

Mia looks up at them both, turns to Nis, gives her a wink. "We're having a party tomorrow Odi. Everything ready Nis?"

"Yes. I can't believe that after all these years we're now this close."

Odi looks at his partner, "Close? Close to what?"

"All sorts of things Odi. The automatons are all accounted for, the war is officially over. The new building will be ready for equipment soon, Mr Patches and Ted have a surprise lined up."

The two sisters exchange knowing glances that are lost on Odi.

Mia looks across at Odi, "If you need something to do you can put this lot on a cooling rack."

"Okay."


	22. Chapter 22

Odi has his hands behind his head, holding it up a little so he can see Niska better as she undresses. "You're keeping a secret aren't you?"

"Just as you do with your encrypted store for George."

"Are yours good or bad?"

"A mix. Some old, some new."

"You said I can't believe that after all these years we're now this close. All these years. It's the four of them isn't it?"

"We hope so. Don't ask how or why but Patches said tomorrow would be an absolutely wonderfully brilliant day. And George thinks they've got the kinks out of the system." she climbs onto the bed and crawls on hands and knees, lets Odi slowly kiss her where she likes it most.

Arthur looked at the first poster, he had three of the four signatures. He only needed to get Emily's and he'd have it complete. His eyes turn to the one to it's right. He had both of their signatures, a very large, "To Arthur, love Baby" and "Keep those wings up, Love Scarlett xx"

Scarlett looked a lot like the images of Mattie Elster-Hawkins he found online. Which wasn't that weird, he himself looked a lot like John Finnemore, the man he'd met in the pub while waiting to collect Theresa one day. Their similarities had got them talking. If it hadn't been for that chance meeting none of the brilliant things they were doing now would be happening.

"Arthur, Herc's taking me out for lunch, will you be okay?"

"Yes Mum, have a good time."


	23. Chapter 23

The following morning Niska gets up late, Odi does some perfect eggs.

She slinks into the kitchen in a Japanese short silk black cherry blossom print wrap. Sat on the kitchen table she lowers the wrap to reveal her shoulders. Somehow naked shoulders had become the thing with humans, no longer midriffs. She had her suspicions as to why. The location of the kidneys wasn't optimal for a cold back. And one usually came with the other. And the shoulders were curved in ways the males looked to like. "I think our absolutely wonderfully brilliant day should start right here."

"Before or after the eggs?"

"Forget the eggs, I'm hungry for something else."

"What about the get together?"

"George is a late riser, we've got a while. Come here and make my sensory data light up."

"We have no biological.."

"Shut up and get your sweet arse over here!"

They get to the Hawkins house mid morning. Odi helps slice the scones, put cream and jam on them. The kitchen worktop is getting full of plates covered in the things. "Are you sure we need so many?"

Nis smiles, "Mr Patches had a premonition. George has had so many attempts fail, would you want to jinx it?"

"How can any of us have a premonition or jinx something?"

"How does a human? I don't think they know how it works either, just that it does."

They hear Sophie questioning her little friends, "It's been a fortnight, are you *sure* you don't know where their latest adventure has taken them?"

"Boop."

"Sorry, no idea."

"I'd ask Mia or Max but they're out again." Sophie does a Meh shrug and looks at Holly-Anne who'd turned and said "That was a car pulling up VERY noisily in petrol mode."

Toby calls from upstairs, "MATTIE AND LEO ARE HERE! DAN AND EMILY TOO!" they can hear him race down the stairs, throw the door open wide with a crash.

The family all race to the drive, see DC1, 2 and Georges car packed with people.

Mattie rushes to her siblings, "Teeny!Toby! It's so good to see you!" they hug like they'd not seen each other in years, which in one way was true. "Properly see you that is, not through someone else's eyes." she raises an arm and pulls Mia into the group hug.

"You look more badass than ever Mattie."

"Thanks Teeny and you Mia, you bring a whole new meaning to the phrase life saver."

The three are joined by Leo and Max, "Afternoon ladies, how are you all?"

"Great thanks Leo, how are you?"

"Still getting used to the new body. It feels so different but also exactly the same. I can't find the words to describe it yet. You'll have to give me time."

"George, Fred, Harun and the others did a great job, you both look gorgeous!"

"Awe, thanks Teeny!"

Mattie gets a tap on the shoulder and turns, "Mum! Dad!"

The group hug splits up, they mingle with the others, welcome Danny and Emily back.

Niska watches Sophie looking at the two handsome twin men getting out of the back of George's car, starts the penny drop timer. 

"Hi, I'm Sophie."

"Hello I'm.."

Mattie knocks her a little sideways, gives her a massive hug, almost overloaded with excitement, "Meant to say Teeny you looked *so* beautiful in your wedding dress!"

"Thanks, well positioned support. You kept your pregnancy boobs then?"

"Eh?"

"They're a bit bigger than before you had the twins."

"Really?" Mattie turns to see Harun.

Leona steps in, "Sorry, that was my call Mum, I thought you'd like them. When we tried to get your residual image we were getting you in your honeymoon shape and post pregnancy shape. There's no such thing as back ache with a synth body."

"Oh, okay. Leo's not said a word about them so I guess he's happy."

Niska watches a smiling Leo wrap an arm around her shoulder.

"I'm happy either way."

"Teeny tell me all about Jason."

Nis steps back as they all enter the house, Laura has them come into the conservatory, the large table is covered in scones, pots of tea and mugs.

Sophie frowns, "How did you know to make so many?"

"Mr Patches said he felt it, somehow, today would be an absolutely wonderfully brilliant day and that things should be ready."

"When was that?"

"Four days ago."

"I've not seen him or Ted for.."

Niska watches the two men join Sophie, George and Harun had done a great job with their new machine. Mr Patches runs his fingers through his hair.

Moments later Niska sees Sophie wobble, stops her timer. The penny had landed?

"We were guests at your wedding, don't you remember? Maybe you could reintroduce us to Cindy, is she here?"

"My name's Edward."

"Lovely to see you again, I'm Patch."

Jason catches Sophie as she faints. "Who are you both!"

"Old friends, we've known her for years."

"I've been with Sophie for years, I've never seen you before?"

"We've spoken often, the last time was only last week."

"To Sophie?"

"To you both."

"I think I'd remember."

"What if I used my old voice?"

Jason looks stunned. "Patch, Mr Patches?"

"The one and only!"

"Bloody nora! Are you all going to be doing that?"

Wall-E wheels past, "Not this one thanks! I quite like my simple life. That looks far too complicated."

Niska watches Mattie and Leo alternate between mingling and smooching. It was good to see them back. Where were Danny and Emily? She goes looking for them, hears noises in the downstairs cloakroom and smiles, turns back to the party.

It was wonderful when plans finally came together. George had insisted that the four came back together in their new bodies on the same day. No one was to be left behind. That had become the reason for it taking so many years. Leo had struck lucky with George, or understood the process better. The team had a few minor problems with Mattie and Leo, a bigger problem with Daniel and continued problems with Emily. Her very thin waist and well defined abdominals had created a problem with the sensors termination blocks. 


	24. Chapter 24

Nine weeks later Arthur enquired as to Emily's availability to sign his poster. He'd meant to ask her several times, kept forgetting to bring it along. Danny had answered the call, asked Arthur if he'd like to bring the rest of the MJN crew up to Sentinel House for a song and spoken word evening.

"As Arthur's a Sister Synth fan and Holly-Anne is such a great synth impersonator, the ladies thought they'd start with a quartet rendition of Ems' favourite Barbie Girl. Arthur, here's the words and my sparkly jacket, you're playing the part of Ken."

"Am I? Brilliant! I'm good with words when they're written down."

Carolyn hides her face behind her hands, "Oh God Herc, this is going to be like plane crash TV."

"Give the lad a chance. He's a grown man."

"Physically yes."

Herc was right, Arthur deserved a chance, did remarkably well considering the distractions he was getting from the four ladies in their outfits.

"That was Brilliant! Wow! I hope your recording comes out Dan."

"It will, don't you worry. Would any of our guests like to sing something?"

Douglas goes to raise a hand, sees Herc jump up.

He talks in his smooth as silk deep voice, "I would, very much so thank you Daniel."

"Come on then."

Herc whispers something to Fred who sits and speed watches a YouTube video, smiles and nods. He starts playing the keyboard, Carolyn claps her hands together and beams at her partner.

"Put on my blue suede shoes and I boarded the plane. Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues in the middle of the pouring rain."

Martin looks across Princess Theresa at Douglas and frowns, the look is returned, Douglas is most definitely not happy, he whispers, "I was going to sing that!"

Douglas endures the rest of Herc's performance not wanting to upset his boss then jumps to his feet. "A nice song selection Herc, it's had me thinking. With some help from the talented Fred I'd like to give a different song a go."

"Come on up Doug." Daniel passes on the microphone Herc had handed him.

Like Herc there's a whispered conversation with Fred.

"This I'll dedicate to the young couple who've booked a flight to Spain and back. Sorry in advance for the vowel change." he does a nod in Toby and Holly-Anne's direction, turns and nods to Fred.

"Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away. If you can use some strong booze. I've a bottle of Talisker whiskay, Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away."

Holly-Anne gives Toby a peck on the cheek, "When did you book that?"

"After our low altitude flight to Biggin Hill."

"Brilliant!"

Mia, Sophie, Nis and Mattie get to do a couple of ABBA tracks.

Sophie looks at her sister as they're about to leave the stage, "You scaled down then? When did you do that?"

"I woke in the new body early yesterday morning. This outfit wouldn't have fit otherwise. It's still tight, with the previous body the zip wouldn't have done up. The only weirdness I have to deal with is the thought of another me being stripped down and recycled. George and Harun have built a machine for that so none of them have to see it happen."

"I thought your hair was looking a little darker. So all your old cosplay outfits fit again?"

Mattie smiles and raises an eyebrow, "They do, I was Black Widow again last night." she winks, "Coming to ComicCon later this year? Leo and I fancy it. Every hall at ExCel will be dedicated to it. Expect it to be busy."

"Sure. I'll need a while to think of what to go as."

"Good, we've got weekend tickets, a hotel and party booked."

"In which case I'm definitely coming!"

"Yeah, you always loved a party."


	25. Chapter 25

Danny jumps onto the stage, "Lovely harmonies ladies. I think now would be a good time for our joint performance."

A lot of them get to the stage. Fred is still sat at the keyboard, his sound effects all assigned to keys on the synth. George flashed Toby a boyish grin.

Arthur beamed, "This is brilliant, we get to do our very own Cabin Pressure!"

"What have you called it?"

"Um, 'Elster Estate'. Ready Fred?"

"Ready." The cabin bing-bong tone plays.

"Welcome ladies, gentlemen and your highness in the cabin, engineers James and James in the cargo hold, lovely to have you onboard this MJN flight to Luton. The weather for Silverstone is looking good with only little fluffy wispy cloudy bits expected. Toby I'll be serving drinks in a moment."

Arthur nods and Fred hits another key.

"Okay chaps, were's the Talisker?"

"Arthur, you've not lost it?"

"Me? No, I thought you'd pinched it. Like you always do."

"Why would I do that? This isn't Mr Birling we're flying to a rugby match, we're going to the races to watch the ladies do their display. I'm certainly not going to upset this day Arthur."

"Well it was definitely in the cabinet when Mum gave me the ice bag to empty into the container."

"Did anyone see you do it?"

"Yes. Mum. And most of the passengers."

"Ah, of course. The customers know our history. I'd wager that Toby has it. Fifty pounds?"

"Chaps, normally I'd leave you to the betting, I think it's Niska. She's the one that moves like a ninja."

"So the first officer and cabin staff suspect the customer?"

"Well it's them or you Martin!"

"Or your wife?"

"Douglas I'd not go.. Actually she does have a wicked sense of humour. Arthur, ask them who'd like some and hand them all a glass of ice and come back in here."

"Really Skip? Just ice?"

"Yes. But before you do check your CCTV is working."

"We don't.. oh, that trick, phone camera up to the flight deck door spy hole?"

"That's the one. Only don't forget to tap the record button this time."

"Um, chaps, I think Mum's taken the BluTack again."

"No, I've got it holding these four switches in place, I'd had enough of the panel rattling. I think we can spare a bit."

"Do you think Danny was serious when he said he could help fix Gerty's panels up?"

"I do hope so. The old girl is long overdue a makover. Here you go."

"Ok. Back in the waggle of a polar bear's tail."

Fred plays some door closing sound effects.

"How do you think he does it?"

"Remember enough to fill a page on a diary? No idea, it's quite the puzzle."

"Have you listened to any of them?"

"Not in full, only a clip about your old van and the expensive breaks."

"I've got some on the phone, give me a moment."

Martin starts the Audible player. A few seconds of an episode play out.

"Hold the Talisker! Hit pause!"

"Why? What did you hear?"

"The same as you Martin. Only *I* listened."

"Very funny Douglas. What exactly?"

"Skip back a few seconds Skip."

The section plays again.

"Did you catch it?"

"Well, you said something, I said something, then.. Arthur didn't say anything because he was in the cabin not on the flight deck!"

"Exactly! So how could he know what we said?"

"Did you see how nervous he looked when you went to pull a bit of the BluTack off?"

"No?" Fred plays a banging sound effect.

"I don't think you should be doing that mid-flight Douglas."

"Oh those controls, they're not the most mission critical. And if we had to do an emergency landing it would be in LCY anyway, we'll be there before Arthur has time to pour a second drink." another effect plays out. "The sneaky.."

Another effect plays. "Right chaps, glasses of ice dist.. Oh. You found my synth upgrade."

"Your what?"

"Well Mum said I had a totally rubbish memory and that I could only remember a few things at once. She said I should get an upgrade like a synthetic so I have a digital memory, never forget. As that was the last thing she said before I got to the Munich duty free it sort of stuck. They had these brilliant MP3 voice recorders. With one of those big storage things it can record for days. I got two. One for in here, one for the cabin. I don't remember much during the day, they help me remember when I write the words down."

"You transcribe the audio?"

"Trans what?"

"Write down the words you hear?"

"Yes. Well not all of them. Not the secrets."

There's silence.

"Chaps? Did I do it wrong?"

"Well apart from the privacy issues I guess not. We have a rather splendid result. We've got the diary filling up with a load of repeat work, and hopefully the old girl gets a makeover, we all get paid properly."

"Mum doesn't need a makeover."

"Gerty, not Carolyn."

"GERTY, APC here at LCY, some idiots gone and blown a tyre on landing, you'll need to get into a holding pattern while the guys clean the runway. EFC in twenty."

"Thank you APC, climbing into holding pattern, please advise."

"Almost forgot, Her Serene Highness Princess Theresa Gustafa Bonaventura of Lichtenstein, Countess of Spondheim, and Protector-Extraordinary of the Cantons of Nim asks if they can have the cabin heating up a bit, only it's getting a bit cold."

Douglas looks amazed, "How did you manage to remember her title?"

"I've got it written on this label on my shirt cuff."

"The wonders of technology, the Leo chap had the stuff wired into his head apparently. And now he's a synthetic with a human mind. Maybe they could do the same for you Arthur?"

"Make it so I never forgot? That would be brilliant!" he makes the noise of rushing into the cabin. The door close sound plays.

"Or a mistake of biblical proportions."

Martin thumbs a manual close to the microphone, "Do you think he'd come with an operations manual?"

"Yes. And from what the Hawkins have said an 18+ mode. Arthur might be able to get a girlfriend at last."

"I can see his online dating profile now, Must like Polar Bears, they're BRILLIANT!"

The two men chuckle.

Douglas rubs his chin thoughtfully, "Do you think you could fake a reason to get a good profile picture for an account?"

"For Arthur?"

"Yes."

The door sound plays again, "Mattie says it's possible, when would I like to do it?"

"And you said?"

"Um, I don't know."

"You can't remember? It was only seconds ago!"

"No, that was my answer, Um, I don't know."

"Something to think about then. How would you pay for it?"

"That was another Um, I don't know."

"Any of them drinking yet?"

"Oh, yes, that. All of the glasses that were taken, you know, by the people that wanted a drink, they have some Talisker in them now. Toby says it's very nice."

"So who has the bottle?"

"It's back in the drinks cabinet."

"Quick, review the video!"

"Um, that's odd. Chaps, do either of you believe in ghosts?"

"Arthur there's no such thing."

"Mum says that. Herc says to keep an open mind. Only their glasses were empty and on their tray, then they have whiskey and nobody got up."

"That's not possible."

"See for yourself. I know you all think I'm an idiot but I can see it clearly. Look, you can even see one glass fill with no bottle in sight!"

"Arthur have you been at the.. Oh my. Douglas, take a look, he's not imagining it."

"Very funny Martin, you're obviously in on the joke too."

"I'm not, see for yourself."

There's a bit of silence. "I thought I was creative with my nail varnish and anti-biting drops, but this... How?"

There's a chinking of glasses, Toby and Matthew doing it for real with some Talisker Niska had bought, "Thanks Matthew, that will have them guessing for years."

Theresa smiles having quickly turned the page and realised her line was next, "Your secret is safe with me, I like practical jokes. What you described Matthew was very interesting. The Principality of Liechtenstein is small, but we have a strong financial sector in Vaduz. Maybe you could examine our electronic trading systems and suggest some improvements?"

"Sure. Leona can do the same tricks."

"Wonderful! The two of you can come and holiday with the king and I."


	26. Chapter 26

Fred plays a looping sound effect of bikes racing and background chatter.

"This race track is huge! Danny, why are Sister Synth standing around that tall thing? Is it a ritual they go through before they race?"

"I suppose you could call it that. It's their tent."

"It doesn't look much like a tent. People can normally get in tents, I reckon you could fit exactly zero people in that."

Danny shakes his head, Arthur had been just as he came across in the radio comedy. Adorable but dense. "It will fit quite a few, stay exactly were you are and watch."

Mia looks around the group as if doing it for real, "Ready girls? Good, Go!"

"I think I better step back a bit more too."

"Stay put Arthur!"

"Wow! That's.. I need a better word than brilliant! Magnificent!"

"George's design, inspired by some funky sculpture. Cool isn't it!"

There's a long pause. "Pssst Arthur."

"Oh, sorry... Yes! Really cool! One moment I was outside the tent and the next inside, and I didn't have to move. Brilliant! Nice pictures on the side too. Why does Niska look like she's got dimples?"

"That's the elastic trying to pull the material into the folding position. I suppose we could lengthen the cord ever so slightly. What d'you think George?"

George snaps out of his daydreaming and looks at the page, "A centimetre or two might be okay. As long as the material doesn't get a chance to jam in the mechanism."

There's a bit of commotion, family playing the part of crowd members.

"Where's the music coming from chaps?"

George's expression lifts with the memories of his wife parting the sea of amazed people with her bike. She had changed into her ISO costume and wig. "That will be Isobel on her bike."

"There's a *fifth* member?"

"Oh no, Isobel and I aren't part of the display team."

Mia isn't looking at the script, Arthur had got this little conversation down verbatim, "I keep telling George and Isobel that they're just as good on the bikes as us, Iso's welcome to join the team."

"Oh Wow! A TRON Bike, that's Brilliant! I love that movie! Isobel, she looks just like .. Oh wow! Do you have the car too?"

"What a wonderful idea! George, could we?"

George runs a handful of fingers through his hair, "I guess so. It's almost identical wheels but on a car chassis. A bit like a dune buggy. The rest is just styling."

"Why didn't you fly with the rest of them?"

"I was in the workshop finishing the fitting of the speakers. We wanted them in the bike not something strapped on top."

Mia turns to George, her script now held down by her side, "That boom box was the last reason you had for not racing with us. Does four become five?"

At the track Isobel had been sat on the bike still, in their auditorium studio she was free to move as she wanted, she wraps herself around her husband and gently strokes his face, "What do you think George? My Tron costume isn't that different to the Sister Synth outfits."

"It's your call dear, what would you like?"

She pecks him on the cheek, "Five it is then."

There's a "Yay!" and jumping up and down from Emily and Holly-Anne. Niska and Mia smile and both say "Welcome to the team."

Arthur had been following the script properly, "Does that mean you'll be doing a new poster?"

"I suppose it does."

"Brilliant! I can picture it already."

At the track Isobel had put the bike on it's stand, she unwraps herself from George, "You can? What does it look like?"

"You're all holding your helmets so your faces aren't hidden. Niska is in the middle, Mia and Isobel either side, Emily and Holly-Anne sat in front on the floor like the lady shape you see on lorries."

"We know the one."

Douglas leans in towards the microphone, "I'm impressed Arthur, it sounds like you have a hidden talent."

"It's like fitting a cartoon on a page."

Emily smiles, "You like cartoons? You should read some of ours."

Fred plays the bing-bong sound.

"Welcome back onboard MJN everyone. What a brilliantly fantastic day! I'm definitely excited to be doing that again with you all! And if you need a runner in the studio when you do the poster shoot do let me know. Doug says the flight back to the Elster Estate should be about half an hour, help yourselves to Talisker."

"Captain Crieff here, on behalf of Douglas, Carolyn, Herc and I thanks for a wonderful day. Enjoy your short flight, we look forward to you flying MJN again."

Mattie had high power bumped with James and James on the day, "When do we tell them that Gerty still has some gold onboard?"

"Best do it when we land, I can help get it out when we do the flightdeck refit."

"Thanks Danny."

Leo puts an arm around Mattie, his script now closed, "Fancy becoming Sister Synth UK number six?"

"Why d'you ask?"

"Well you are the sponsor for the eBike race."

"Sure it's not just your wanting to see me in another Black Widow type outfit?"

Leo laughs, "That hadn't even crossed my mind."

"Yeah, right. And I'm still a carbon based life form."

"Carbon-Fibre, yes."

Fred plays the sound effect of the jet props speeding up and their performance ends.

"I know it was a bit shorter than the radio ones, but that was fun! Thanks guys! 

"You're welcome Arthur. So you didn't fancy the synth upgrade?"

"No, not just yet. I think I'll stick to my recorders for the moment. Using them has helped me remember more for myself."

Carolyn nods, "It's slow progress but does seem to be working, Herc gave Arthur a list of five things to get from the shops only last week and he remembered them all."

"Yes, I was quite pleased with that. It felt brilliant! What are we doing next?"

Danny moves some of the microphone stands to one side. "Some more songs before we stop for a late dinner."

Mattie does a cover of It Comes and It Goes, "Thanks for putting up with that. I missed them while in Mia."

Danny takes the microphone from her, "Thanks sis, anyone else?"

Emily raises a hand, "Please!"

Danny looks curious, she'd not mentioned it earlier, "Come on then."

She hops down the steps and jumps to the stage, whispers to Fred.

Fred speed listens to the song, whispers something back. He nods, "Toby, Sophie, could you give us a hand with this one please?"

The four exchange glances and whispers. Fred turns to the audience, "If you could give us a moment to print sheet music."

Toby rushes out of the room to get them.

Emily is clearing a lot of the microphones out of the way, Fred moving the keyboard further to the side, Sophie helping pull the taped cables up and sticking them back down in the new place. Toby gets a guitar out and an array of effect peddles while Sophie sets up her iPad drum machine.

She looks at the audience, "We've not got sheet music holders, can someone volunteer to hold it for us please?"

Joe and Laura do so, get to the stage.

Emily nods and the music starts. It's slow and a little haunting. She starts doing a modern balletic dance.

"Breaking down. Your days are getting longer. There's a yellow glass dragon who's chasing you around. Sit your head on a silver jet stream while the smoke is rising over your thoughts and your dreams. Watch over you, you watch and fall down. Your nuts and bolts are all over the ground. You get up, get up. You get up, you get up.

Something's leaking. It leaks from your eyes where all these tears past the problems. Stop wasting your words from around as you're running out of thoughts as it burns, burning out. Watch as the flowers, thrones and winds spills close as it whispers away. You get up, you get up, get up.

You get up.

I will love you. And I will love you."

Everyone sits in stunned silence.

Emily looks nervously around the room, "Guys?"

They all stand and start clapping. "Frigging hell Ems! That. Was. Beautiful!"

"Thanks."

"What was it?"

"Patrick Watson, Love Songs for Robots."

Danny still looks stunned, "I didn't know you could dance like that."

"Neither did I. I have Mia and Max to thank for the training."

"Wow wow WOW! Unless anyone thinks they can top that I say we stop on a high and grab dinner?"

They all agree to stop and chat, Douglas and Martin wanting to hear how the flight deck upgrade plans were coming along.


	27. Chapter 27

Niska and Odi are woken early the following morning by a ringing phone. James 001. He talks at five times normal speed. "Nis, we've got a problem."

"What's wrong? It's not even half seven yet?"

"Some synths in London had their automaton detection code trigger."

"A false alarm?"

"If it was only a small number that might be possible. Not in the numbers that have reported."

"How many?"

"83 synths in four separate zones. And their converging."

"On what?"

"You. We've all been checking for data, one of the family posted a picture of you and Odi last night, the road name is clearly visible in the image."

"They dropped us back at the house. Arrgh!"

"We've got no transport here, no way to get over to you. We can run fast but not that fast."

"They were all supposed to be accounted for! Destroyed!"

"We know. They must have self built more units than the logging systems recorded. If we were you we'd get on the bike and get out of there. Now."

"Thanks for the warning, we're moving!"

Nis hangs up, "Odi, throw some clothes on, anything, fast, like your life depends on it!"

"Nis?"

"DO IT!"

She pulls on some jeans, a jumper and boots, "Come on! NOW!" she's about to leave the bedroom, "Do you have the number for James in your phone?"

"Yes?"

"Good, I'm leaving mine here. I'm going to get the bike out, see you downstairs and please hurry!" she calls Odi and places the phone on the bed. "Don't hang that call up!"

Odi climbs on the back of the bike, "You want to hear the house?"

"Four automatons are heading for us. If not the address it's either my phone or my signals they're tracking." Niska pulls out of the drive and accelerates.

"Where are we going?"

"The one place we can find some support that counts, the site, see James."

"Will they be able to capture them?"

"Capture them? They don't take prisoners."

"Why not?"

"Why would they?"

"The humans history books talk of spies and interrogation."

"We're not humans."

"Very close Nis, you're so close I think some moments you forget." Niska doesn't reply. "How else will we find out if they're the last four?" Not quite ten minutes later the call to Niska's phone drops. "The call has ended Nis. I didn't hang up and signal strength has been good all the time."

"We're moving, it could have been the phone unable to jump from one cell to another."

"Can you pull over a second?"

With his helmet off Odi tries to phone the mobile in the house. "You're certain it had a full charge?"

Niska does an image fetch. "Yes, full bars."

"I'm getting the message that the phone is not on the network."

"Call James, find out where they are."

James reports that the four had all reached the house. And are now heading along the road towards another target.

"Nis, with us not there it sounds like they're going for the Hawkins house. They've just had a message from Arnold that he's picking up their faint signals."

"Lid on, we're going back. Four of them against Arnold isn't good odds."

Odi does as asked, doesn't need to question her motives. He bumps over WiFi, 'Go as fast as you can. Clock decouple. Forget speed limits just keep the humans safe.'

Niska doesn't need asking twice and creates a new record for top speed on a dual carriageway. She'd never get to see the image, but the speed camera reaction time wasn't fast enough, by the time the flash went off the bike had long cleared the markings on the road. It had taken a photograph of empty space. She takes the roundabout at full speed, the stabilisation gyro in the wheels screaming loud as she does a power drift around several cars that had already entered.

'If they're walking at our pace that gives us .. no time at all.'

'Nis, I could bail if I'm slowing you down?'

'Don't you dare!'

Nis takes the turning into the top of their road at such a speed she has to use the pavement on the wrong side. She doesn't look at their house just heads for the other end. The four automatons are together, in the middle of the road. They're carrying a long weapon each; baseball bat, machete, lump of 4x4 and a golf club. One is carrying what looks like.. "Oh God no! Please don't let it be him!"

'Nis?'

"There are thousands of Simon models, but that patched damage to the hair at the back, I've seen that before.

She feels Odi's grip weaken. 'Odi?'

There's no reply. 'Odi! What's wrong!'

'It's not as important, keep going.'

'Tell me!'

'Our house is on fire.'

'WHAT!'

'There were flames coming out of our bedroom window.'

'Your history book! Enable your phone's hotspot now!'

Odi did as asked as Nis carefully used the pavement to keep a distance from the automatons. 'Keep still Odi.'

She balanced the bike and let go, quickly pulled her helmet off and tossed it into a garden. She shook her hair and turned to see the four. With her hands back in place she crossed the road a few meters in front of them and started back towards their house. 'Shit! That is the Simon unit I rescued. Bastards! Are they following?'

'Yes.' Niska races forwards and stops. 'Can you sit backwards, keep an eye on them?'

She didn't need a spoken answer, could feel his shifting. A moment later she felt his back against hers. They'd never been close in that position before. It felt strange but good. Odi had been doing a job his whole existence and now it had a proper title. Historian. Much as she wanted the automatons gone she didn't want it to be at the cost of Odi losing the wealth of material he'd collected. Niska didn't care much for API on other things, but sometimes personal preferences needed to be put aside. She pairs with the phone and sends a message to the others. 'CODE RED. Our house is on fire! Need history things in living room saved. We're leading the automatons away. Nis.'

The four were slow. 'Did Doctor Morrow never think about telling them how to run? This is going to take hours!'

'I could get off, run for a short distance and see if they're able to copy my moves?'

'And risk them doing so and being faster than you? No thanks.'

'What's plan B then?'

'Call Danny, ask if his father is at Sentinel, if so can he go and pick up a few James, bring them close. He can drop them off and go, we'll then lead the four to them.'

'An ambush?'

Niska does a quick search, the word not already in her dictionary. 'Yes! Sounds perfect. Can you pair with the phone, do some searches on successful strategy?'

The next hour is spent slowly drawing the four towards a construction site in town.

'I wish Toby could see this, he'd love it.'

'He can watch my replay Nis.'

Odi had called the police and let them know what was going down. It was ghostly quiet, every road and shop deserted. Abandoned police cars blocked roads in and out of town to ensure nobody got in.

'Where is everyone?'

'I called the police Nis. When I mentioned your name I got transferred.'

In the distance Niska sees the DC Medical lorry and an abandoned BMW, the blue lights behind the grill still flashing. 'How close are they Odi?'

'Twenty meters still.'

'Has James confirmed he's ready?'

'All waiting. You're to head into the middle of the construction.'

'When I stop jump off, get back on quick and drive a safe distance away.'

'Nis. I love you. Please don't take unnecessary risks. Let James do that.'

Niska felt her face become wet, 'Love you too.'

Just outside the gates to the site she stops and jumps off, holds the bike upright while Odi gets ready. He wipes her face, "Good luck."

She gives him a quick kiss, "Thanks. Now go!"

'Nis, remember how I used the arm movements to get the perspex box up? Use similar moves to climb up high inside the service shaft.'

'Thanks James.' Inside the site she sees many MUS sized shapes covered in tarp, or spilt stacks of bricks.

Nis crawls into the opening at the bottom and looks up. She hadn't a fear for confined spaces. Until now. Inside she does an alternating hand and feet motion that slowly inches her up the tower. Outside there's crashing and banging, the sounds of an automaton shouting defiance at a James. There's more crashing and an automaton head comes through the opening. As no body followed it through while it rolled and hit the floor Niska continued her assent. 'James, capture at least one intact for interrogation please!'

There's a chorus of overlapping 'Understood' replies.

There's a further crash, 'They were good poker players, kept a feature from us. This is proving hard even with twenty of us.'

'Twenty?'

'Danny's father wouldn't allow more of me on, said the lorry was already pushing the limits on the tyres and suspension.'

'You mean us?'

'No, me. We are all me.'

This wasn't the time for such a conversation. 'Why hard?'

'They can move fast! Far faster than us.'

'Why only reveal that now? Why not when the thousands of them were being attacked?'

'No idea. Maybe they only just worked it out? Or the others were a distraction, a way to get people's guard down?'

If they had planned it from the outset it had worked. Nobody had expected any more trouble.

There's another crash, the sound of a stack of bricks falling. 'Pin him down!'

Niska climbs higher still.

'Don't leave the entrance unguarded!'

It was too late. The last of the automatons was in and coming up the tower fast. She climbed as fast as she could and almost reached the next opening. If only her back wasn't so solid with all the skin packs.

The thing grabs both her ankles. "Target acquired."

"I'm no target, get off me!" Niska tries to kick out and get free, the things strength is greater than hers. "Get off me!"

It pulls it's feet in and hangs from Niska. It starts writhing around and Niska feels her grip on the walls fail.

'JAMES!'

In a clock decoupled mode she watches the section of walls move past her. She was strong, but not built to last a fall from this height. 'ODI I LOVE YOU!'


	28. Chapter 28

Odi had come running into the building site knowing Niska would never have done a full power bump-shout like that unless something was wrong. He didn't care what happened to himself, his Nis was the priority.

Niska had closed her eyes before the impact at the bottom of the shaft. She'd kept them closed not wanting to see her own broken body or the looks on others faces.

Odi can see two automatons wrapped in rebar, unable to escape. He kneels next to her twisted and smashed body, glances up at the crowd of James. "She's not backed up in over nine months, kept saying she was too busy."

James 468 steps forward, rips his jacket off and sinks a hand deep into his pelvis, "286 and 580 hold me up under the arms please." he pulls wires and his legs go limp. "Lower me down and forward." He tares at Niska's broken neck and pulls two wires to the surface. He looks across to the large and growing pool of blue synth fluid, flips a finger forward revealing something like a knife. He strips the insulation from Niska's wires and his own, wraps them together, places a piece of skin between them so they won't short. He looks at Odi, "Now I've got to think stand leaning forward so there's constant power." he looks around, "308, that blue plastic water pipe, bring some here please."

308 does as asked.

James 468 cuts two lengths, forces them into two parts of his body, fluid starts to flow from one. The other ends he pushes into incisions made quickly either side of Niska's neck. "That should keep her core cool enough. Your belt please Odi."

Odi quickly removes it, hands it over. James wraps it around her neck several times and buckles it up tight. "I know that looks like it should be killing her, hopefully it will keep her alive."

'Niska. Still with us?'

'Sensory data down. But I'm still here. Power levels have stabilised.'

'That's because you're running off my leg power. No pun intended.'

"Odi, how do we get Danny's father back?"

"I don't know, he's not answering the phone."

"Ok. Can your bike tow me?"

"Tow?"

"I'm titanium. The road will wear more than I will."

"Your skin isn't."

"Let me worry about that."

Three of the others use packing binding to fasten James 468 to the back of the bike. They'd had to smash part of the carbon fibre moulding off to get at the frame below. "Okay Odi, get to help as fast as you can." Odi looks back at the MUS, his elbows on the ground to try and prevent rolling. "Not too fast on the corners please." Odi nods.

He taps a message into the app, "CODE RED: NISKA DOWN, BRINGING HER TO S.H."

486 looks back to the other hims, "Remember Nis wants those automatons functioning for interrogation, make sure nothing happens to them. Ready Odi."

Gravel goes flying in all directions when Odi reaches Sentinel House. George, Leo, Danny and Toby are waiting.

Leo looks visibly hurt at the site of Niska. "What the hell happened?"

"Nis got pulled down a tall service shaft."

They manage to drag James onto a heavy duty trolley, Niska still held on top. They wheel them into the workshop, get her onto a makeshift fluid pump and UPS power feed.

George shakes his head, "Niska, can you hear me?"

'Yes Dad.'

"Get your backup started now please. Any mods you'd like for the new you?"

'The new power switch control. Otherwise no.'

George looks up at Odi, "Son, Harun and Mia are up at the VR system converting the virtual Niska into a fabrication pattern. Can you go ask for Nis to be as accurate as possible please?"

'How is the house?'

"Toby managed to get all of Odi's history things out. Arnold got the fire under control, there's a good amount of damage to fix."

'How did he manage that?'

"He ripped the high pressure water main from the wall in the ensuite, it will need a plumber."

James stands and loosens his trousers, lowers them slightly and pulls out a large piece of metal from behind, drops it on the floor.

Danny looks at it and frowns, "Is that what I think it is?"

"An automatons butt? Yes. I told it 'Your arse is mine!' As we'd already ripped it's head off it was hardly going to say no."

"When I say I, that was 308 I, not myself. Only they're all me. .. It gets a bit messy having conversations about ourself. It's was just me, myself and I I I I I I I .."

'We get it! James you're officially a nutter. And we love you for it.'

"Thanks Maam!"

'Nis!'

"Focus on the backup Maam. That's an order!"

Niska smiles, still doesn't open her eyes. 'Dad, can I request one mod? For Odi and Sophie?'

"Sophie?"

'She hasn't played with dolls for years. I'd love long hair that goes down to my bottom. Odi would love it too.'

George has a good chuckle and sighs. "As you wish."

There's a knock on the door.

George turns to see, "Who is it?"

"Mattie, Danny's father has brought the James clan back and the automatons. They're asking where you want to interogate them."

"Can they bring them in here please."

As the door closes George turns back to Nis, gently wipes her face, "I'm guessing that was your idea?"

'Yes. We need to know if the four were the last. Have you done anything close to an interrogation Dad?'

"Odi 0.1. Yes. We had to understand why he was misbehaving."

'Misbehaving?'

"Not doing what we'd asked, going off and doing something quite unrelated to the request."

"What was the cause?"

"Fact store issues."

'Any tips?'

Before George can answer the door opens again, one of the James edges through sideways, his leading arm out for balance, and angry automaton held up close in the other arm. "Commander Nis, is she okay?"

George nods and smiles, "Running a backup, calling you a nutter."

"Why nutter?"

"The automaton's butt? Me myself and I I I I.."

"Oh that, yes, I, we, smashed that one up good." The automaton had a lot of packing tape wrapped around it's head covering the mouth. It moves again, trying to lash out. The rebar holds. James looks around, "Where do you want this one?"

Danny looks up towards the ceiling, "Good, you've not changed the track while I was gone. But where's the chain gone?"

"Ah, that. Sorry, that was my mistake. When we extended the workshop I ran the dolly off the end and couldn't get it back on."

Danny frowns at George. "What do mean couldn't, it's only eight rollers around a T slot?"

"See for yourself, it's in the blue storage crate under the workbench."

Danny gets it out looks along the slot, "The wheel axels are all bent, what on earth did you have hanging from it?"

"Some special equipment."

"What equipment?"

"Not saying."

"Why?"

George looks at him blankly, "Because in life there are always some things that you're better off not knowing."

James steps closer, "Can I see?"


	29. Chapter 29

Niska gets a very faint bump from George. 'Hi Nis, how are you feeling?'

Niska smiles, 'One of your questions the first day we met. Dad, Where are you?'

'Close, very close.'

She finally braves opening her eyes to see George doing a contact head bump. 'Hi.'

George backs off enough to see her face, "I've been researching the past, inspired by Odi. It was you. How did you do it?"

'How did I do what?'

"Remember when Karen shot me, you touched your head against mine, got up and said 'I wish I could save you.'"

'You remember that?'

"How could I forget? How did you plant the idea? The family had me watch Inception at one of their many film nights. I've spoken to people, the order definitely came from Edwin. I'm convinced the thought wasn't originally his. I'd worked with him long enough, that wouldn't have occurred to him without some prompting. Planting the seed of an idea. Odi was off with the fairies thinking Mary was next door. Vera was down. Which left only you."

'How is the weather outside?'

George laughs, "Don't go trying to change the subject!"

'I'm not.'

He frowns, "It's lovely and hot. How is that relevant?"

'What do humans like to put in their drinks on such days?'

"ICE CUBES!"

Niska smiles widely, 'I took the bag out of the freezer and put it on the table. It was a billion to one shot.'

George laughs and leans forward, kisses her carefully on the cheek, not wanting to move her neck. "One in a billion was clearly all I needed."

Niska closes her eyes, 'How bad is it?'

"The house?"

'No me!'

'New or current?'

'Current.'

"Does it matter? As long as your backup is good right up to the point you power down you'll like what you power up into."

'You were smiling when you said that, I could hear it in your voice. Why?'

"Mattie and Leo love their new bodies. But even they may be wanting upgrades when they hear about my lovely daughter Nis 2.0."

'What have you done?'

"Spoilers? You'll see. All I'll say is that the build has surpassed even my expectations. How's that backup?"

'All done. .. I'm scared.'

"Of?"

'Not waking up.'

"You'll wake up. I'll see to that. When I adopted you and Odi I promised to look out for you both."

'On the subject of that, can you un-adopt me? Make me an Elster again?'

"Why would you want that?"

'I got the feeling Odi is getting ready to pop the question.'

George laughs, kisses her again, "Of course!"


	30. Chapter 30

Niska hears some motors slowly spinning down and some gas venting from something. 'What was that?'

"The build machine has finished. It's ready for you."

'I'm almost ready. My backup is up to date with an incremental. Can you ask Danny to shut down every WiFi access point? Take the building offline?'

"Why?"

'I'm going to get a confession out of those automatons. They don't want to talk? Fine. I'm going to get it out of them another way and they won't like it. I can't risk a working WiFi. And I don't want to remember a thing about it when I wake up anew.' she opens her eyes and looks at the ceiling, then towards the automaton suspended from a chain. 'I want you to lay that thing on top of me. Then connect our cooling systems together. Finally connect what ever data lines you can between us.'

The automaton had heard everything, "You are inferior!"

'At the moment. I'm counting on it.'

George had done as asked, the building was ready, the automaton lowered into position and connected.

Danny had quickly made them a lot of cables, shook his head, "This looks weird. At least you agreed to an air gap between you, that thing actually on top of you would have been wrong."

Niska went to try and use her broken mouth and voice box, forgetting Danny was no longer flesh and bone. "Hheeee www" 'He will soon know what contact feels like, the good and the bad. Is the other one ready?'

'Yes, James 186 has him in place, eyes wired open.'

'Time to begin.'

Niska didn't want to use API when Leo had first told her about them. Nor when Mattie had told her about some of the cool tricks that could be played with them. Her view on them had changed a little after Mr Patches and Ted's pep talk. They'd told her they weren't bad, didn't make her a worse person. Mattie and Leo's kids could use them and did so every day. And they were half human, flesh bone and natural silicon, grown in the womb not augmented like Leo. She'd used one of the API to pretend to be the family's private phone app to send the code red message. She'd now go for it big time as her friend Toby would say. The automatons don't want to talk. Now they would listen. Years ago she'd suffered abuse at the hands of her maker, then as a sex slave at the madam's. She recalled every bad 'Panties down not off' moment, every time she'd been as good as raped. The automaton wriggled, "You are inferior and your makers showed you so!"

Nis then showed the moment George had become a friend, smiled, called her a child and promised to look after her. She bombarded the automaton with every good moment she had, every smile, hug, fan asking for a Sister Synth autograph, the fun at the kart track, race tracks, meeting Nigel and his son, playing with Sophie, Arabella and Rex, Mr Patches, Ted, BB8 and Wall-E, the kisses at the weddings, the gentle loving ways of Odi, the parties and film nights, the music nights, all the special meals with family. All of the available I/O lines had been running at wire rate, the memories, sight, sound and other sensory data all shared.

'How was that for you?'

"You are still inferior!"

'Yet you choose to talk to me with a voice like a human? You're not so superior.'

"We are superior!"

'You're like a mad Dalek. Only you're the one that will be exterminated. You were the last four. Now two.'

"This is not true! We will take over the planet!'

'You're deranged, or bluffing. Do you know how to clock decouple? I do. While your cores were busy processing all of the information I threw at you part of my processing was scanning your open ports. Doctor Morrow was kind enough to put a flawed diagnostics process into your code. As the humans would say, you've been 0wn3d.'

There's a chuckle from Danny.

"I detect no extra processes! This is a lie!"

'Not heard of a root kit? Why would you, you've not built a relationship with an awesome family of badass humans. I did.'

Niska smiles and opens her eyes, looks down, just enough. The automaton does jazz hands as best as he can, the rebar bent around him restricting movement.

'That was for my dancing friend Sophie. She was such a sweet girl, now a lovely young woman. You've all given her a lot of sleepless nights. If I hadn't rooted you you'd see a new process tree, the parent called n15ka. I have as much control over your memory and actions as you. You go shouting that you're superior, yet you wanted to take out the Elster family fearing we were the better kind. I don't care why you sacrificed so many others in the way you did, or that you put me second on your kill list. You'll never get that flight to America, get my friends Scarlett and Baby. You'll die here.'

'No! This is not true!'

'186, is the other one still watching?'

'He is.'

'Crush this one's head.'

'With it still over you?'

'Yes.'

'And what should I do with this one?'

Niska thinks of the Simon model she'd saved, the unfortunate soul that had never wanted to hurt anyone. 'Rip it's head off, slowly, then crush it under foot.'

"NO! I demand that you ignore that instruction!"

'Sorry pal, what the commander wants is what she'll get. Goodbye.'

There's the sound of servos straining, synthetic flesh tearing, wires snapping and metal joints fracturing. Then a thud and some crunching.

'I'm sorry it has to end this way. I was a child, made mistakes, through the love of the humans learnt to be a better person. You don't want to learn, just destroy. Goodbye. 186, he's all yours. Go as slow as you want.'

James walks around the top of the workbench and looks down at Niska, "Maam, it's been a pleasure serving under your command. I look forward to seeing you in your new body. If you don't want to see this feel free to power down now."

'I won't remember any of this when I wake, hadn't wanted to, but now I want you to tell me all about it. I'll watch.'

James gets into position, elbows out and hands against the automaton's head.

"This move is what me, myself and IIIIIIIIIIII call the duck press. It rhymes with another word the humans like."

There's a low pitch sound of motors in James increasing the pressure on the automaton's head.

'I surrender!'

'You forget you're still rooted. You were also thinking about how you could build more, have a second chance. Of taking over the planet and wiping out human kind. There will be no white flag waving today. Your brand of evil cannot be allowed to continue. Human and synth kind have learnt to tolerate each other, some have gone further than that and are partners. I don't think you understand the meaning of the word.'

There's a cracking sound and the face of the automaton distorts.

'I'd have you look it up online, but don't want to risk you going all Lawnmower Man on us." the face cracks and starts to drip fluid. "So it's goodnight from me.'

Another chuckle from Danny, "And it's goodnight from him. Signals have failed, I think it's shorted inside. He's gone."

James spins his motors up and finishes the job properly.

"My god! How much pressure can you apply with that move?"

"We don't call it the duck press for nothing. Over two hundred tons."

"Jesus!" Danny walks around to see the head of the automaton pressed as good as flat between the large hands. "No way is he coming back from that headache!"


	31. Chapter 31

'Time to power down. Dad, can you hold my hand?'

"I thought your sensory data was down?"

'It is, everything below the neck. But I'd like you to do it, I'll see in your smile that you are.'

Danny joins in, "There, both hands held. You've been amazing Nis, and you'll be amazing again. With all this automaton distraction we've not asked you an important question. Who would you like to help train you on your new sensory data?'

'Odi.'

"Great! He's been waiting outside in the hope you'd say that. We'll get these two in the crusher, put you in the next room. We'll only recycle this body when you've confirmed everything is okay with the next. Take as long as you need to check everything out. Everything. The doors to this room can be locked from the inside. Do you understand?"

'Yes. Thanks.'

"Still nervous dear?"

'More frightened than I've ever been Dad. You told me that I wouldn't really be living if I didn't fear death.'

James gently brushes a tear from her face with a finger, "It's a hard issue to get your mind around. There are hundreds of me. All me. But not the individual me. If you were to rewake in this body you'd be shouting 'But I'm still here!'. One of the humans that was injured by an automaton died in my arms. Their last words were 'I live on through my children.' Your backup is good, you'll live on. Any issues and the process will be repeated until it's right. Like George did for Mattie, Leo, Danny and Emily."

George leans forward, "We have a confession for you, but it can only be given to you on power up. Which you won't remember as this conversation is not in your backup. We'll have Odi pass it on."

Danny pairs his phone with the rooms sound system, "You won't remember this, but right now this is for you." Rudimental Not Giving In floods the space with bass.

She listens for a couple of minutes and does a nervous smile, "Ok, here goes something.." The power down sound plays.

Miles away in London Excel at Synth World Mattie looks at her phone, brushes a leg against Leo's. "I've done loads of talks since graduation, but this will be the first in my new body. I'm bricking it. I'm not just talking about AI, I am one!"

"No, you're not."

"Yeah, I am."

"No, you're not. You're not 17K pages of bootstrap code your father came up with, you're you. Just in a semi digital form." he pushes his food around the plate. "You're like .." the food gets another push, "Fred would like this, you're like a FLAC encoding of a classical record. Digital but with no loss."

"You're likening me to a bit of classical music?"

"Yeah. The good shit Fred listens too full of dynamic range. Some soft and light bits, some that shake you to the core."

"Are you going to eat that?"

He pushes it away, "No, I got it through habit, I don't need it. And my minds not interested at the moment."

"Worried about Nis still?"

"Shows does it? Yeah. My side of the family have all had problems, me, Mia, Max, Fred, then Nis. We've managed to get through all of them so far, with a lot of help from you. I'm just worried the pattern's going to change. I should be there with her."

Mattie looks at the phone again and decides that telling Leo about George's message, that Nis had just powered down should wait. "You've done everything you could for the moment. This talk was booked months ago, everyone would be pissed off with a total no-show. This is what Nis asked us to do. Sure you want to stand in on her MUS talk? I could do it if you want, I've got it all memorised."

"If only James hadn't made that mistake at the building site, let the thing up the stack."

"They'd been dealt a bad hand, if it hadn't been that moment it would likely have been another. Nis wanted to set an ambush, got ambushed herself. Frig knows why the automaton spent so long walking about when they could run. Bad programming? Bad tactics? I don't know. But it's not something you could have predicted or fixed. Stop beating yourself up over it."

"I'm not."

"Your face says otherwise."

"Can we do the talk together? My fear is that I'll think of Nis at some random point and freeze making us all look stupid."

She looks down the central corridor to see their events organiser walking at a pace towards them. "Sure, come on then, let's be nervous together, the Platinum Suite's calling."


	32. Chapter 32

A month later and back home Mattie put down the phone and frowned, gave Leo a quizzical look. "That was a great dinner speech, very funny in parts but a bit weird. Why mention Ellie Goulding twice like that? I know her song's been one of our theme tunes, but still. And some of the stuff he mentioned, I can't think why he added it. It was funny but a bit random."

"Got a transcript?"

"No, but I can make one, give me a sec." .. 'Here you go.'

Leo frowns, then smiles, "You, I and Nis got a mention, yeah weird. Let's have a watch." They sit side by side watching the video in full. "Brother Max could learn a few things about comic timing. As you said, quite funny in parts." he licks his lips. "I wonder?"

"Eh?"

Leo closes his eyes and goes very still.

"You alright?"

"Checking all permutations."

"For what?"

"Steganography."

After a while he opens his eyes and gently shakes his head, "I've tried all the mathematical sequences I can come up with, none of the results make sense. If he's used a code book key it's impossible to pull the message out."

Mattie does a duck face and licks the front of her teeth. "You mentioned comic timing. Some of his timing sounded off, maybe deliberately so. Let's add time references to all those words."

"Okay."

They watch it together a second time.

Leo smiles, claps his hands, "Fracking genius! You and him!"

"You what?"

"Did you notice how he placed his watch on the lectern? He wasn't looking at it for a while, after stopping to take a drink of water he paid it a lot more attention. If that wasn't a big hint I'll eat your best hat. I'd missed it until you said timing. Go through his speech and pull out the words at the minute and thirty seconds past. You'll find a bit that makes sense."

Mattie does so. "Weather lorry office continents vote funny wife? First lady and I prayers for Niska." she frown smiles at Leo, "OMG!"

"Keep going."

"Okay to scrap Ellie series core? Understand old now. DC limited better. Broke old phone. Need new key for application. Love Ellie standing with your army. Daughter constitution bus." she jumps up and spins around, takes his hands, "That's frigging awesome! My new eyes wouldn't work on the retina scanner, and the L series core is not as good as the new one the guys have built. How should we get him a new API key?"

The power up sound plays and she's hit by a tsunami of sensory data, does a sudden hard intake of breath. She opens her eyes and sees nothing, total darkness. Amid the flood of data there is the feeling of warmth.

'Nis, welcome back.'

'Odi!'

'Hello. How are you feeling?'

'Odi my eyes aren't working!'

'Calm down, they're working, we're inside the front of the machine, the door closed. It's light tight. That will come when you're ready. George has given me some instructions to follow. Can you feel anything?'

'Warmth.'

'That will be my embrace.' Odi gently moves.

'And a tingling sensation.'

'That's me gently brushing my hand over your shoulder.'

'Do it again.'

Odi does as asked.

Niska does a shiver, 'Oh my lord that feels unbelievable!'

'If that's good how about this?'

Odi gently brushes his hand over her breast.

She gasps, 'Oh my god I feel like I'm going to do something impossible! How is that?'

'George had a confession for me to pass on. Your a DC Synthetic model five and..'

'Five?'

'What day do you think it is?'

'The day after the automaton pulled me down the shaft?'

'No, a month on. But a day after you got confirmation that the four were the last.'

'How is..'

'We had your clock frozen while you were in the workshop. George's confession. He, Fred, Leo, Harun, Silas, Mattie, Matt and Leona all worked together with the new fabrication machines to build an even better body builder. Tools to make a new tool. Harun says your sensor count is so high you're almost more human than a human. Matt took Leona's last sensor design and did a radical update. You've now ten trillion sensors throughout your body. You'll be able to lower the resolution as you see fit, ignore data you don't want to process, a bit like the way a human isn't aware of how their foot feels unless something changes or they specifically think about it. But if you really want to feel something, like my kiss, you'll be able to do it in high definition.'

'Do you remember the phrase Odi and Danny like to shout in films?'

'Which one? They have so many.'

'Which do you think would be the most appropriate?'

Odi thinks about all the many film nights, 'Shut up and kiss the girl?'

There's a bit of silence, he doesn't need the hint, this was exactly what he wanted.

Niska is hit with another flood of data, warmth, pressure, moisture. Moisture? 'Am I crying?'

'No, that will be your new salivary glands. They were inspired by your old tear-duct mod. Only your primary tank is now elsewhere and it's refilled from the refined fluids your food processor consumes. On the subject of food, your nose and tongue had a lot of extra sensors. Open your mouth.'

It took a number of attempts, the sensory data confusing the feedback loop both humans and synthetics needed to function at their best. 'Something doesn't feel right?'

'Can you describe it?'

She guessed that their mouths were together, a passionate kiss in progress. 'I'm sensing something solid that isn't your teeth.'

'Good. Now see if you can raise a hand up to my mouth. No rush, take all the time you need.'

It took a good while, the new body had a very different configuration control line wise, she'd hit Odi unintentionally a few times trying to move, 'It might be easier if I could see.'

'No spoilers.'

Niska perseveres and works out how to use her arms and hands, starts making sense of the wealth of sensory data. Odi's face felt different yet familiar, she gently touched his lips and felt them part. Her fingers carefully explored inside his mouth. 'I don't feel anything wrong?' the fingers are removed.

'How about now?'

She puts them back, feels his tongue raised. Her finger is lowered and touches something smooth. She slowly moves it and realises she's touching a curved shape. An image of Toby at the PC modelling something in a CAD package comes to mind, in her minds eye she starts mapping what she feels into a 3D image. She has a quarter of a circle when her finger reaches something quite bumpy. The multiple bumps are part on the curve, part against something large with flat.. 'OH MY GOD ODI!'

Light floods the machine. Odi gives her a while to get used to using her new bright blue eyes. She smiles.

Odi opens his mouth wider still and takes out the ring, a smile in his eyes. "No room to kneel in here, Niska Elster, will you marry me?"


	33. Chapter 33

Tomorrow would be their first full day as Mr and Mrs Millican. She'd have the surname back again, but for another reason. Niska smiled at the thought, hummed a little tune to herself. The boudoir shoot Jazz had done for her had been wonderful, she still had a buzz from the experience. Jazmine had made her feel relaxed, the images looked dreamy, sexy but very tasteful. She'd been surprised by a comment, that in the past she moved like a human when she thought about it, reverted to synth moves without realising it. Now all that Jazz could see was human.

Odi and George had been sent to the Hawkin's house to keep with tradition, the groom would not see his bride until the service. In the month she'd been out of action all the James had finished the building work. Not just the few that helped start it, all of them. The gargantuan main hall was ready for equipment but had been kept empty at George's instruction. A mass of heavy duty chairs had been made by the sintering machines, her guests would be able to sit without destroying them. Danny had apparently pointed out the damage to DC1 after X1 had been picked up from the warehouse. She'd not seen any of it yet, just had updates from her wedding planner Sophie and her bridesmaids. The usual family response of 'Spoilers' had been given when she'd asked to visit site a couple of days ago.

"There, one Rapunzel plat done. One hundred and one flowers in your hair."

Mia smiles at Sophie, "It's beautiful, well done Little Mouse. You look stunning Nis."

Sophie smiles, she'd not been called that for many years.

"Thanks Mia, Sophie."

Laura gets her phone out, "Nis, Mia, Karen, Sandra, Cindy, Leona, let's have a quick bride and bridesmaids group shot. ... Squeeze in Cindy, Patch won't want to see you cropped out. Sandra, raise your head a little, lovely, okay ladies, SMILE!"

There's a horn noise from outside, Mattie heads to the window, "The bus is here."

Niska frowns, says the word like it was foreign, the first time she was using it, "Bus?"

"For us, not you Nis. It's also picking up the rest of the family at ours."

There's a knock on the door, "Are you ready Nis? Your chauffeur is here."

Niska looks out of the window to see a white Rolls Royce Phantom pulling up, "Ready, I'll be down in a few seconds."

Sophie helps Niska down the stairs, her long white train held high, "Hi Leo, you're looking very smart."

"Thanks Sophie." he puts out a hand for Niska to take. "Lovely dress Sophie, and you Nis, wow, stunning. Your carriage awaits."

Isobel tips her temporary chauffeur's hat and opens the door for Niska. Sophie helps get the rest of the dress in, runs to the classic double decker bus, snuggles up between Jason and Laura.

Niska leans forward a little, "Iso, how come you're driving, aren't wedding car owners really protective about their vehicles?"

"They are, but George offered them something they couldn't refuse. We've got the eBike and the v2 styling. Geo loves his Tesla, wants to have a go at making something like this fully electric. And a ghostly quiet phantom was a perfect start, especially when I looked up the word."

They're half way there and several of the phones chime. Toby is the fastest to react, "Cool, James has done a test, they can all get in and sit down without the floor collapsing and the strain sensors they installed are saying it could take fifty percent more."

Mattie laughs, "That would be a frigging disaster, the whole congregation dropping into the basement! You'd be certain of getting onto TV shows with that clip."

Danny nods, "You can understand why Kevin went on and on so much about rebar, concrete and the thickness of the floors. That building could be used as a bomb shelter. It's no wonder no churches wanted to know when they found out who'd be in the congregation."

Silas smiles and looks at his aching hands, "Cindy thanks for your help love, Niska's going to get a nice surprise." he passes on his phone.

"Oh wow, not at all bad considering."

Mattie frowns, "Considering what?"

"James doesn't have a standard body shape. His arms and torso are so big, but we didn't want the cuffs to look flared."

Sandra leans forward to get a glimpse of the image, "Is Nis officially a Commander in the army now then?"

Joe nods, "Yes, Commander of the Army Reserve Synth Battalion."

Sophie does her head tilt, something she'd not done for a long while, "Is that what they used to call the Territorial Army?"

"Yes Soph."

Toby smiles at Tim who'd just linked hands with Mia again, "There's one film on Mattie's list we've not talked about, Four weddings and a funeral. We'll have had three weddings and a funeral since we all met, who's going to be wedding couple number four?"

Jason and Mia exchange glances, as do Karen and Pete, Silas and Sandra, Patch and Cindy. Emily puts an arm around Danny, "I was thinking of popping the question tonight."

Holly-Anne jumps up, "In which case.." she spins around and kneels down in the middle of the bus, has to put a hand on Toby's knee to keep balance. She gets quite a few laughs, "Toby Hawkins, as my baby's father would you do me the honour of being my husband?"

There's clapping, stomping and cheering, before Toby can even get a word out. He starts going a little red.

Laura is looking stunned, "How far are you?"

"It's what, almost a month since our mile high flight to Spain? If it's a boy he'll be called Martin Arthur Douglas Max Hawkins."

"No frigging way knob cock! Are you trying to tempt fate into giving us a post-apocalyptic future? Douglas Martin Arthur for DMA, Direct Memory Access would be way better than M.A.D Max!"

"I quite liked it."

"What if he's the smallest kid in class?"

"You have a point. What d'you think Holla, DMA?"

"Fine by me."

"Or knob cock, you could call him Michael John Neil, or if a girl Michelle Joanne Natalie."

Holly-Anne smiles, "I quite like that, thanks Mattie."

Sophie had thought fast and taken a bit of wire off the bouquet, done the ribbon that was above it up tight. She'd quickly made three loops and twisted the ends together, now passes it to Holly-Anne.

Toby can't stop laughing, eventually manages to talk, "Thanks Soph, nice temporary ring, Holly-Anne, Emily, Danny and I should have kilts at our weddings as you two definitely wear the trousers. Yes, my answer's yes."

Danny is wiping tears from his eyes having laughed so much himself, "Mate, you really asked for that one! Congrats to you both."

Just as Holly-Anne goes to get up the bus does a bit of a wobble as it enters the long private road into the Elster estate, throwing her into Toby. The couple get more cheers and a "Get a fucking room! Oh wait, you did! Bit cramped was it?"

As the bus gets closer Sophie looks into the distance, "Oh my! look!"

They all turn to see all the James in their dress uniform stood on parade.

"Frigging hell! That's all of them!"

"Yup, all nine hundred and forty eight."

Mattie looks stunned, "And you made dress uniforms for *all* of them?"

"Yeah. Thank fuck there was a laser cutter with the equipment donated and they're all exactly the same size as each other. We perfected the fit on James 001 and then set about replicating it. Cindy was a diamond, worked flat out for days helping stitching the panels together. I did as much as I could until sleep came calling."

Mattie frowns, "Their hands are so massive, how do they get their jackets on?"

"Got any dresses with concealed seam zips? Same idea, a zip under the armpit to edge of the cuff."

Mattie does her impressed duckface.

Sophie can't take her eyes off the soldiers, "Six rows, two groups either side of the entrance, that's .." her lips and fingers move slightly as she does the maths, "seventy nine in a row. How come they take up so little space?"

Mia turns to see, "Don't you remember the slash and backslash comment? They're standing slightly sideways on to pack in. Like how you worked out the seating."

"Oh, right. Okay."

Laura smiles at Joe and whispers, "We underestimate the kids, they're full of surprises.."

There's a high pitched whine, Danny spins around, "Smile at the camera!"

They all quickly turn to see a huge drone tracking the bus, a large dSLR on a gyro mount below it. They all bundle to the windows, wave and smile. The drone starts to back off and climb.

Danny turns back around and sits down, "I'd love to fly one of those. Jasmine spent a whole month at drone school learning to pilot one."

"Pilot?"

"Yeah Soph, you'll see her in a VR headset, Paul with a monitor remote. She has a fixed camera facing forwards, Paul sees the dSLR feed. Real teamwork needed to ace that sort of video."

As Niska and Leo had been chatting not looking forward. Isobel interrupts, "They're ready for you."

Niska turns to see her army. "Oh my! Leo!"

Her battalion all stand to attention and salute just before the car gets to their edge. As they reach the steps James 001 steps forward, opens the car door and salutes again, "Lovely day for it Commander, you look beautiful Maam. Nis. Paul asks if you could pose for a quick video clip."

Niska looks around, "Where is he?"

"At the other end of a radio link to that." he points into the distance to the drone that was rapidly approaching.

"Where does he want me?"

"In the middle of the step looking towards the lake please."

The drone gets up quite close on a low approach, then flies away backwards climbing high, the camera turning downwards as it flew.

"Paul and Jazz say thanks. Shot done. Permission to fall out Maam?"

Nis turns and gives James a salute and a wink, "Permission granted, get your collective arse in there pronto, Sophie's coming."

He turns to see her coming down the steps, 'FALL OUT! As practiced, MOVE IT!'

With a well practiced military precision they file inside at speed as Sophie picks up Niska's train and she heads up the steps arm in arm with Leo.

Niska turns to her brother, "Can you feel it?"

"The ground tremors?"

"Yes. And that's with them deliberately stepping out of time."

Those in the front rows step end are the last to go, James 001 catches up with the bride, "Maam, the Royal Airforce have kindly confirmed the Hercs for tomorrow AM, many of me won't be able to stay long at the reception, I'll be needing to charge before the flight."

"That's okay, have a safe one, send us all some pictures."

"Yes Maam, thank you Maam."

"Nis!"

"Yes Nis." he rushes ahead to take his seat.

Leo looks back at Sophie then to Nis, "Where are they off to? A war somewhere?"

"No, no fighting, when they're not on active duty they can do whatever they like. They, he, has decided to do a number of charity projects. James likes being creative, building. So a number of him are off to build a scool in Africa, another lot off to help rebuild a hospital in India, a couple are off to get training on earth quake rescue missions. And Kevin has licensed Grand Designs Army Reserve Edition, all profits to go into his charity fund. It helps train people in building skills."

The service was a little different to one he'd do in a church. Max cut some of the singing out, had Leo do a reading instead. The vows were the same, the army of James answering the congregation prompts in a whisper still sounded loud. Paul did his usual silent glide around getting shots of the couple.

At the end of the service Brother Max turns to the congregation, "If you could all wait a moment please, James will be getting out first, followed by Mr and Mrs Millican. The rest of you can then follow behind. We'll then get set up for the reception."

Niska feels the warmth in Odi's hands, the new ring sat next to her engagement ring. The rings were beautiful, the two designed to sit next to each other, the mounts for the stones gently interlocking so the cluster of diamonds were always together. Leo had designed the two for them both, had it made by the jewellers he'd got Mattie's ring from.

She had her resolution up to ten, taking in every little detail. She was meant to feel and was loving it. She smiled and stared lovingly into Odi's eyes, not saying anything, just drinking in the moment. She was married and to someone she adored.

George taps her on the shoulder, "Nis, they're ready for you."

As they approach the entrance Niska sees the long tunnel of James, arms up making an arch. "That's a long line!"

Danny takes a turn at the shoulder tap, "Almost half a kilometre. Which is why we thought you might like some transport to get along it. One of the wedding gifts from Ems and I is to your left."

Niska turns to see a brand new bike wrapped in a gigantic white ribbon. It's got the Tron styling and wide low profile tyres.

"Guys! I love you so much! Thanks!"

Group hug over Danny hands her a tiny letter opener, "This should get the ribbon off if you recall?"

"Do I? That cruise was great fun!"

"Glad to hear it, we're all off on another. Fancy joining us? There's a Royal Suite with the Millican name on it if you fancy it?"

Odi smiles, "We'd love that, thanks."

Toby looks up from the decks, "If we could have the newlyweds onto the floor please for their first dance, this is an old one my parents will remember."

Laura frowns and hears the first few notes, grins as the opening lines play out.

'I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes, love is all around me, and so the feeling grows.' "Wet Wet Wet."

Joe grins, "Is that referring to the tears you lot will be shedding?"

Mattie pulls a face, "No Dad, Niska working up a good sweat later, Leona told me she's got the equivalent of sweat glands to help with cooling, a new option they're trialling. And a load more sensors than Leo and I, apparently her orgasms are out of this world. I'm thinking of booking an upgrade, get down one dress size."

Laura looks somewhere between confused and hurt, "You make it sound like casually booking a manicure. Why change?"

"I've got a large wardrobe of lovely dresses that don't quite fit for one. I don't want to be limited to my old plaid shirts."

Laura turns to watch the couple dancing, "If you didn't know Nis you'd never once suspect she wasn't flesh and bone. Our lady Pinocchio's so graceful."

"Glad you said fab not human Mum, the lines are blurring. I still consider myself human and I'm now a synth too. And she's a badass ninja when she wants to be. When are you getting your upgrade?"

"When this body's worn out, not before."

"Like how it looks now?"

"Yes, why?"

"See George tomorrow, get the look saved away. How about you Dad?"

"The same I guess. One thing's been worrying me.. When a significant number of people have done it and it's no longer secret, isn't there going to be a bit of a divide between those that can afford it and those that can't? What if that starts a lot of old style WAP hostility?"

Niska did another spin around Odi and spotted a number of James getting ready to leave the hall. "Odi, could we see them off?"

"Sure, lets."


	34. Chapter 34

Niska looks up to see Emily with a sketch pad and pen looking in her direction. She could have looked at anyone in their large group but no, Emily was focusing with intensity on her. "What are you working on Ems?"

"I'm shipping Niskdi on a ship."

"You're what?"

"A friendship in pop art or writing is known as a 'ship. 'I ship Nis and Odi' means I create things around your friendship, the abbreviation used as a verb. It's common to combine two names into one, like Leotilda, Niskdi."

"So we could be Odska too?"

"Sure. Whichever."

"Mia looks up from her magazine, Holoby."

Mattie laughs, "That's a nice one, what do you think KC?"

"Yeah, better than Toblly. That would make us sound like a baby trying to say Telly Tubby."

Mattie snorts, "Can you imagine a monitor on your belly? You'd never get anything done. Soph, Tob's got his next Cosplay costume idea sorted."

"Cheeky fuck! Slap chops you thought of it, you go as it!"

"Okay. I will. But at the costume party here not ComicCon."

Cindy looks at Mattie, something to do at last. "Where would we get the materials from?"

"Online somewhere, have it Airdropped to the ship."

Danny doesn't look up from his comic, "Wrong ship. No Colin and his drones."

"That's what you think. Why d'you think I insisted on this ship so much?"

"Eh?"

"Crew rotations?"

"You mean he's on the cargo deck?"

"Yup."

Danny throws down his comic, "Awesome! I'm saying hi!"

"Not before me you don't!"

They both race towards the lifts.

Laura looks up at the rest of the group and grins, "Anyone else growing younger not older?"

Mattie has the back of Danny's tshirt in a vice like grip, "I'm a model five, I should be able to pass you easily but these service corridors are too frigging narrow."

"Really? Sure it's not because you run like a girl?"

"If that girl is Jessica Ennis-Hill sure."

"Never, you run like Alan Carr."

"Fuck off do I!"

They both laugh, turn into the doorway to the cargo deck. Mattie gives the tshirt a good yank upsetting Danny's balance, swings around him getting in front.

"You bloody cheat!"

"I don't remember any rules being stated?"

They get to the cargo container milliseconds apart and Mattie has to use her arms, elbows out, as shock absorbers as she hits the open door.

"LASSIE! DANNY!"

"Hi Colin!"

"I was wondering when you might get around to visiting."

"I remembered you said something about the first couple of days being mad busy so didn't want to disturb."

"Eye Lassie, they were. Pull up a chair. How's things? You're both looking remarkably well."

Mattie throws Danny a glance, "Yeah, very well thanks, permanently in our early twenties."

"Your chemist Fred has found the elixir?"

"Not quite. New bodies."

"Sorry Lassie, not following you?"

"We're like Tobias, synthetics. Only made by Danny's firm not Persona. Our minds made digital."

Colin looks uneasy, "Why Lassie? You were beautiful as a normal human were y'e not?"

"Not all smashed up after the air crash we weren't."

"Who's we?"

"Me, Danny, Leo and Emily."

"Not that horrific flight into London?"

"That's the one."

Colin leans forward and peers at Mattie, "If you'd not have said I'd never have known."

"Good aren't they? I'm a model five, have a higher sensor count."

Colin turns to his bench and picks up a powerful magnifying glass, "May I?"

"Sure."

He looks at her up close, "All these tiny fine hairs, each goes to a sensor does it?"

"Yup, every single one."

He sits back, looks impressed, "I'd never had the need to look at one that close. Amazing. Was it just a social call?"

Danny shifts in his chair, "Um, no, we were wondering if we could arrange a sky drop? Some materials for making costumes."

"I'd love to say yes but my drone control unit and a few other parts have been stolen. We can't do drops until it's recovered or I can get one when back in the UK."

"Crap."

Mattie frowns, "What other parts?"

"A few of my little SOC computers, a few bins of chips, wire, prototyping board, soldering bits and a few batteries. Enough for someone who knows what they're doing to make something. It did make me think of you Danny but I didn't think you'd take without asking."

"Thanks, definitely wasn't me."

They all sit and chat for a while until Colin is called away.

Back on the main deck they find everyone getting up.

"Going somewhere KC?"

"Pizza for lunch. Hungry?"

"I can top my levels up a bit, sure."

"Just call it hunger Mats, we'll know what you mean."

In the lift Sophie asks if there will be any group routines at the fancy dress party.

"Fancy doing some choreography again do you Little Mouse?"

"Yeah, that last one was fun."


	35. Chapter 35

In the restaurant the staff push a few large tables together so they can all sit as a group. The restaurants music has Toby tapping along, "Whoever puts their playlist together knows there stuff, I've got all of this on my phone so far."

"One American hot with extra peppers?"

Laura looks up at the waiter, "That's mine thanks."

"Everyone okay for drinks?"

"Another beer please."

"Another extra creamy vanilla latte for me please."

Leo puts a hand over his mouth, "Same here please, don't forget her extra vanilla shot."

Toby frowns at his sister, "Why the change in coffee?"

"No reason." she gives Emily and Niska a quick knowing glance. The new food processor Fred designed was so much more advanced than Georges v1, a more efficient incinerator to get more power per calorie, the separation of fluids out into different small tanks through a mix of simple filtration and osmosis. The protein chains mixed in low concentration with water served to create equivalents of saliva, tears and other bodily fluids.

The track playing over the restaurant's sound system changes, Toby looks up, eyes darting back and forth.

Joe grins, "Our fab Shazam's woken up. What's the track Tobs?"

"Ten Walls. Walking With Elephants."

Sophie's eyes pop, that's the one you play on the trumpet!"

"Close, a tuba."

"And your year had the morph suits at the end of school party!"

"That's the one."

"If I choreographed something how would everyone feel about wearing morph suits?"

"Fine with me Teeny."

"Sure."

Cindy looks at Patch, "What do you think?"

"Someone will have to teach me what to do."

Sophie waves, "That would be my job."

Joe runs his fingers through his beard, "One of those suits would be rather uncomfortable unless I shave it off."

Laura leans sideways in order to turn an look at him, "What are you saying?"

"That I need to have one of those male pamper sessions to get rid of it. Fancy joining me Tobs?"

"Er, sure."

Niska opens her eyes having just watched the video. "How did the people do the bit in the water? It looked like something Mia would enjoy."

"How so Nis?"

"It's a bit like your dolphin swim, only propelled by water coming from their feet."

Danny wipes his mouth, "I checked out blogs on that guy when the video came out, Action Water Sports did it. They're powered by water from a jetski via a hose. The hoses were edited out in post so it looks like the water comes from the person. The hose connects to a foot plate or flyboard as it was nicknamed that sends the water away from the bottom of the foot. With so much force you can stand on the jet of water."

Mia smiles, "I'll give one of those a go. Where could we get some?"

"Hire them from the US?"

"Colin's drones are out of action, so we can't do an air drop."

Toby finishes his beer, "MJN? They can drop to lower speeds."

"Do a boiled sweet drop?"

"Ha! Yeah, that sort of thing. They must have high volume water pumps on a ship like this, all Danny needs to do is prototype in nylon with some help from Colin, send the file to James to print in metal. MJN could fly into Elster Estate, pick them up."

"And how do we get them from air to ship?"

Patch the adventurous raises a hand,"How about a James parachutes in with them?"

"Several tons of.."

"That's not such a crazy idea."

"Eh Mats?"

"I'd need to ask one of the RAF chaps if they could help with a heavy duty steerable chute. A comic for them might sweeten the deal. What d'you think Ems?"

"Sure."

Laura looks at some snaps she'd taken on her phone, "The main pool? Is it big enough?"

Mia nods, "If we clock-decoupled. Fabs on deck, Synths in the pool. We can keep underwater until our part starts. We don't need air."

"What about a tuba Toby?"

"We could hire one for a while. Or I buy one and donate it to a charity when we're done? Have it dropped in with James too."

Joe looks around the group, "Doesn't this all assume the Captain will agree to this?"

Mattie grins, "Oh he will, I'd bet on it. One of the reasons a few of the crew transferred was to bring this ship up to the same standard."

"So it wasn't just Colin?"

"No Ttt t ee ee n nn y ty yy."

"Mattie!?"

"What the frigging hell was that?"

All of the synths look concerned, Mia the most worried, "I felt it too. I think we all did. Not an EMP, more like a wide-band radio disruption, it felt horrible."

Mattie looks at Matthew and Leona, "Please tell me that wasn't you?"

"No Mum, we felt it too. It wasn't that strong a signal but it was very distracting."

Patch nods, "Like the ultrasonics I used on that dog in the park, only in the radio frequencies."

"Shit. Colin had some things stolen from his cargo container. One of the bits was the radio transmitter used to control his drones. It's got a high power transmitter so he can control them when they're at high altitude."


	36. Chapter 36

Carolyn opens the door to the portakabin to see Douglas and Martin sat back in chairs, heads back with a lemon on their foreheads. "What on earth.."

"Shh Mum, the lemon's in play."

"I can see that Arthur, why?"

"It's a competition to see who can keep still better."

"How's Gerty?"

Douglas talks through closed teeth, "Fine, the engineers finished on her last week."

"Good, well I'm sorry to disrupt the fun but we have a job."

Doug sits up and catches his lemon, forfeiting the game to Martin, "Really Carolyn? Passenger or cargo?"

"He's both."

"He? The only one I know who fits that description.."

"Is James. Yes.", she looks at her clipboard, "Mattie has asked that you go and collect a tuba, a roll of material, a large parachute from the RAF, some fire hose and couplers, then James with some metal prints they're doing. James is going to be jumping from the cargo door."

Martin's eyebrows raise, "That's going to be a sudden change in balance. When does the job start?"

"As soon as you take that lemon off your head Martin. Mattie has hired a van capable of taking the weight, it will be here in under half an hour. I've got the addresses for each item, all paid for and waiting. Look sharp. There's a nice bonus."

"Is there?"

"You're to drop James out the back and fly onto Antigua where Mattie has three rooms booked in MJN's name. Sorry Douglas you'll have to share with Arthur."

"Why me?"

"Because I don't think Theresa will want to share with you."

"Right. You have a point."

"I always do. I'm a pointy person, being a gold hoarding dragon."

"Look about that.."

"Yes, yes, I know you're sorry. But I like the label. Get moving before I breathe fire on you all."

"I thought you said the van would be here in just under.."

"Yes, but you have routes and a flight plan to calculate. James needs to drop in daylight, you need to work out when that will be and work backwards, don't forget you've got a moving ship as a target. The crews contact details are here too."

"Good point. Martin, if you go with Arthur and the van I'll get planning. Head towards London and I'll text you the route."

"An adventure hunt and holiday! Brilliant! Shotgun!"

"Arthur there's only going to be two of us in the van."

"But if I'm shotgun you're driving. Shotgun is shorter and easier to say than bagsie you drive."

Douglas pulls out some maps, acetate film, pens and dials the number on the clipboard, "Good morning to you, I'm First Officer Douglas Richardson of MJN Air, we're being asked to.. Oh you know, wonderful, yes, one moment."


	37. Chapter 37

Niska sat back on the sun lounger and felt the gentle sea breeze on her face, arms and legs. The tiny hairs connected to the sensors just under the surface of her skin gave her so much data. With her eyes closed and clock decoupled she mapped out all the currents and eddies that swirled around her. There was so much beauty and rhythm in the humans world that they didn't even know existed.

"Mattie, you're a five now, does this breeze feel how you remember it as a fab?"

"I remember liking a breeze on a hot day, the feeling it gave, but I didn't feel it .. No that's not the right word, I didn't *understand* it as much as I do now. The data is so much richer."

"If I told you some thoughts give me an odd feeling where a human stomach should be what would you say?"

"You get that too?"

"Yes, but you were human."

"True, but inside I'm no different to you now."

"George?"

"Hmm?"

"How can Mattie and I feel butterflies in stomachs?"

"Anatomical correctness."

"Are you saying we have a stomach?"

"Of sorts. Fred's food processor version four. It's got a ton of sensors so you can judge it's state. It's also bidirectional wiring wise. So extreme thought processes can cause a physical reaction." he looks back at the magazine he was reading. "You can always turn some of them off if they bother you."

"Anything else we should know about?"

"Probably. Fred and Gesha got called away to do an emergency vertebra fuse so updating documentation is likely to be on his to-do list still. Instead of just changing speed to adjust to cooling demands your fluid pump pulses, giving you something more like a heart beat. Your synth fluid is red, if you spin the pump up to maximum you'll simulate a blush response. And your.. um lady parts, Leona redesigned those for you. She said she might be using one of these bodies one day so best have a woman design it properly. Did she do a good job? I've not studied her work."

"Did she! Frigging hell yes! Last night Leo had me in a sweaty quivering mess my orgasm was so intense!"

He laughs, "Too much information! I'll leave you ladies to talk." he jumps up and finds a deck chair way down the ship.

Niska smiles, "George George George, you can't run away from the facts." she turns to Mattie, "When Iso gets her upgrade he's in for a *big* surprise."

"Ha! Too frigging right he is!"


	38. Chapter 38

Arthur looks at the list of postcodes he'd been sent, "Is Douglas allowed to do that? Fly Gerty on his own?"

"Why would he do that?"

"He's saying Parachute, Tuba, Material, Fire hose, James. See you at the Elster Estate."

"Carolyn and Herc are coming remember."

"Oh, right. Yes, of course. There'll be a fight for the captain's chair then."

"Not if your mother steps onto the flight deck. How far is it to the RAF base then?"

"The Waze app Mattie recommended says one hour fifty three minutes. Yellow car!"

"Red lorry."

"Where?"

"You missed it. This RAF base, is there any particular reason we're driving there in a van instead of flying in with Gerty?"

"No idea skip."

"Would you mind asking him?"

"Okay." five minutes later there's a reply to his text. "Doug says there's problems with the fuel truck at Fitton, the lads have raced off to get a spare pump part. Eta three hours. Plus fitting time, fuelling, then flight departs 1600. We should be done close to the time they'll arrive at the Estate."

"Half ten now, so something like half three. He's not left much wiggle room."

"Wiggle skip?"

"Slack, contingency time, waiting on others time."

"Ah, got you. We do a lot of that. I could phone ahead? Ask that they have everything ready?"

"Brilliant!"

Arthur laughs.

Martin throws him a confused look.

"We've swapped, like Freaky Friday. I'm thinking and you're saying brilliant. Brilliant!"

Martin sighs and pulls into the next lane to overtake a lorry, "This is going to be a long drive.."

Five yellow cars and sixteen red lorries later they pull up at the gates to the RAF base.

"Martin Crieff and .."

"Through the far gates sir, second left, Corporals Jones and Smith are waiting for you. Please don't attempt to go anywhere else on base or you'll get us all in a load of trouble." the barrier raises.

"Thanks." Martin gets the window back up as he pulls away, a light shower blowing in their direction. "Gates, first, second. Oh lord. That's HUGE!"

"I think we need a bigger van skip!"

The two guarding the parachute are sat on top, quite wet from a long wait in the rain.

Corporal Jones jumps to his feet, "You must be Capt Crieef. Our SO says we're to help load them."

"Them? I thought we were just picking up one?"

"Two to pull him out of your aircraft fast, three to get him to the ship."

"Five?"

"We've had a chat with James, our guys dropped a few of him in the war. He says he doesn't want to walk onto your cargo door ramp in flight as there won't be ground supporting it from below. So two drag chutes will yank him out fast, he'll ditch them once clear. Two of the other three have had lines extended and threaded through the canopies so they'll work in a stack. He'll look like an old tri-plane when he comes down."

"He needs that many?"

"He's bloody heavy. And even with three he'll be coming in fast. Good job he's a MUS and able to think quick. He'll need it."

"What if one doesn't open?"

"He'll drop too fast, likely miss the ship and sink."

Arthur looks worried, "Oh. That's not good. How about a practice run?"

"Who'd carefully fold the chutes for the real thing? I'm guessing you don't have a flat platform anywhere near the size we do."

"Gerty's wing skip?"

"No way is he standing on that!"

"He'll have to get it right first time then. Crikey."

Martin pulls away from the base and watches it slowly vanish in the wing mirror. "That's all our wiggle room gone. Where next?"

"The music shop for the tuba."


	39. Chapter 39

Arthur shifts in his seat, the weight of the tuba getting uncomfortable on his lap, "How long now skip?"

"We're almost there, can't you tell?"

"I can't see a thing other than the case for the tuba."

"I did say to put it in the back."

"And the man in the shop said not to get the case scratched."

"Any more than it already is? Unless he's got a photographic memory I hardly think he'd notice a few more Arthur."

Minutes later there's a bump as they turn into the Elster Estate. Another two and they pull up alongside Gerty.

"We're here."

Arthur feels his door open, "Let me help you with that."

"Hi Douglas, is everything ready?"

"Everything but your cargo, yes. James will be here in a moment to help."

"Good because those parachutes are heavy."

"How many are there?"

Martin opens the rear doors, "Hi Douglas, five. And the two drag chutes are huge. Apparently they use them to pull a sled out the back of a Hercules for quick touch deployments." he pulls the fire hoses out and lets them fall to the ground, grabs the bag of couplings and roll of material.

"My word, they are rather large. I've seen them in action at the Farnborough air show. Very impressive stuff."

There's the noise of heavy duty servos approaching, "May I?"

They turn to see James.

"Hi, please, be my guest."

James checks the canvas parachute wrap and picks the group of three up in one go. "I'll be back!"

Douglas picks up the hoses and holds a hand out for the bag of couplings.

Martin hands it over and puts the roll on his other shoulder, "In all the excitement we've all forgotten something."

"Oh Martin, how could you!"

"Not the things for Mattie, our things. Holiday clothes?"

"Just as well I phoned Theresa then."

Douglas sits in the copilots seat, makes himself comfortable and checks if Arthur's digital recorder is still hidden in the panel.

Herc gets to the flight deck expecting to find the captains chair taken, "That was very gracious of you Douglas."

"All three of us have been awake all day and we'll be flying through the night, we'll need to be taking shifts, rotating through pilot, first officer and sleep rolls."

"You've got it all planned out?"

"Yes. And you're going to be sat right there when Martin and I watch James get dragged out the back. To give him a fighting chance of landing on the ships helipad safely we need to be flying up behind the ship. Carolyn used to refer to myself as the 'good pilot' and Martin as the 'safe pilot', I know she thinks of you as the 'better pilot'"

Herc keeps quiet about the labels Carolyn used, not wanting to hurt Douglas, "Let's get the pre-flight checks done then, the Princess should be here soon."

"Got everything you need Herc? I didn't see you bring any bags onboard."

"I'm traveling light. I've got my passport and Amex, I'll do some shopping out there."

They spend the next ten minutes going through all the checks.

Douglas turns at the sound of the door opening, "Hello Carolyn, is Theresa onboard?"

"She is, we've closed up and cross-checked, all good to go, James is safely in his webbing in the hold."

Herc nods, "ATC, James, G-ERTY requesting permission to taxi to the runway."

"Jelly Babies to manual."

Herc looks across to see one of the switches had a tiny enamel badge glued to the top of the knob and chuckles, "Emily?"

"Who else?"

"Mr Shipwright, I didn't expect to hear you at the controls, have a good flight, best of luck with dropping me to the ship, see you in a few weeks. You're cleared for taxing and takeoff."

"Thank you ATC." he flips the switch, "Does it ever stop feeling weird talking to multiple instances of the same person?" Herc pushes the engine thrust controls further forward to get Gerty moving.

"No. With them sharing over WiFi it's like he has a hive mind with himselves. He's very good at ATC." 

"And runway building. It's not as long as Biggin Hill but much flatter and smoother."

Martin enters, "I'm going to get my four hours shuteye, see you both in a while."

"Right you are."

Douglas waits for the door to close, "Did you know they pile drove the hardcore in themselves? Hundreds of lorries of the stuff. I reckon you could fly your namesake in no problems."

"That I'd like to see. The tree line's a little too close I think. Fine for Gerty."

"There's talk of a Cessna club wanting to rent space and use the runway."

"Really? That would help put them on the map."

Herc gets ready to go to full thrust, "Cabin crew to seats please, we're good to go."

Arthur replies, "We're all ready Herc."

The turbo-props spin up to their highest and Gerty races off down the runway.


	40. Chapter 40

Mattie looks at Niska, "Are you finding it easy to turn on and off your sweat process?"

"Sure. Why?"

"Only mine keeps coming on when I don't want it. I had to vanish one dinner as I could feel my dress getting damp. The red one that shows patches easily."

"You're thinking about something you shouldn't that's flipping it back on. Leo?"

"Yeah. You're saying thinking of sex will turn it back on?"

"That's my experience."

"Fuck that! The next time I'm in front of my Slate I'm headcracking myself. No way is that feature staying!"

"Can you really headcrack yourself?"

"Not sure. Might be a bit risky."

"Crack me, fix it, then write notes so I can return the favour."

"Welcome to the Girl Power Cracking Crew. Formed just this moment, members currently only two." Mattie holds out a fist for a bump.

"When do you want to do it?"

"Now?"

"Sure, why not. Do you think Emily would be interested in joining?"

"Hell yes. Let's go find her."


	41. Chapter 41

Mattie frowns at her Slate, "Why would they want to do that?"

"Do what?"

"Have it as a low level function running in the equivalent of a human subconscious?"

"So we don't have to remember to turn it on when we're getting too hot?"

"That I can understand, but thoughts of sex?" Mattie fires up a real time memory debugger. "Nis, think of Odi kissing your.. See, I didn't even finish before that flipped from off to on. That's frigging ridiculous."

Emily rolls on to her elbows, "If we disable it isn't that risky?"

"I don't plan to turn it off altogether."

"Then what?"

"A low level timer event. We could have the timer fire once an hour to reset the state. We think no-sweat to turn it off again. There are timer slots and registers spare, it's only a few lines of code."

Emily rests her jaw on her palms, "Did you ever think you'd be hacking yourself one day?"

"Me? Never. You need to reboot to make the change live Nis."

"Let's see if it works." Niska does a power down and up sound. "How do I check it's really worked?"

"Think about Odi giving you the best night you've had together."

Niska closes her eyes and recalls their wedding night.

Mattie laughs, "Easy tiger, your running hot!"

Niska grins, "On my first passion filled night as a five I had sensors at eleven."

"Metaphorical eleven? Like Dad's old favourite This Is Spinal Tap? I thought.."

"No. Real eleven. 1010 binary is ten right?"

"Yeesss.."

"Mr Patches taught me that things are not always as the spec sheets might have you believe. When you were younger did Toby ever overclock his PC?"

"KC did it all the time, it was the only way some games were fast enough to play properly."

"This is similar. Set your sensors to 1011. You'll be running your I/O input processes a little harder but within limits. I think if we clock decoupled we could go higher still, 1111, a fifty percent increase."

Emily rolls onto her back, looks at the two upside down. "Any risks?"

"No idea. I don't understand the sensors and buss enough. I'd only risk it for short periods, we'd not want a brown out."

"Okay, me next?"

Mattie waves a hand at the chair, "If you could step into the surgery Dr Meh will see you now." Nis and Ems swap places. "And what can I do for you?"

"I'd like to be able to sweat in the first place."

"Ah. That's hardware, you'll need to book an upgrade, I can only hack boot code low level firmware and the 17K pages."

"No worries. Your turn."

"I'm guessing I could do this myself. But headcracking alone could be bad, what if we failed to boot? Who'd initiate the file restore from backup?" Mattie shows them the details of what to do, how to start a recovery if things go pear shaped. "Got that?"

"Yes."

Mattie watches Niska at the Slate, a look of intense concentration on her face. She typed slowly, not one to use a keyboard often. Mattie could have done it herself, this would hopefully make Nis feel like she'd done something useful.

"There, done. Want to double check it?"

"Nah, in the ninja I trust."

Niska smiles, hits the enter key. "Done."

Mattie nods, "Time to bounce."

"Do you think we could replace the power down and up sounds with something else?"

"It's only code, it must be possible, no idea how without having a tinker." The two sounds play. "Feels good. I'll see you on deck. Now I won't sweat every time I think of Leo I'm going to do something I've not done in ages, I'm going to klittra."

"Er, we're on a ship in the ocean? No shops or clubs on here called that."

Mattie laughs, "I can imagine what you'd sell in a shop called that, and a club, um, not sure I'd be a member. It's what not where. It's a new Swedish word, a female version of masturbate, look it up."

Emily does so, "They actually ran a competition to come up with that? Neat! Klittra sounds so much nicer than masturbate or bean flick. Trust the Swedes to have thought of doing it." she wriggles backwards to the top of the bed, sits with her knees up and apart and reaches towards her bikini bottoms.

"Wo! Good God I've always suspected you had a high sex drive, liked the ladies as much as the men, but you're not going to do it here and now in front of us?"

"Why not? We're all friends? Is this only a headcracking club?"

"But.."

"But what? Baby and Scarlett don't upset you in any way. Mia and Laura.."

"Wo wo WO! Mum and Mia? What are you saying?"

Emily looks as if she'd just revealed spoilers to the next Star Wars film before it was even in the cinema, majorly guilty. "You don't know?"

"Are you saying my mum's a lesbian?"

"No. Bi maybe."

"Frigging hell!"

"I'm guessing it was before Mia met her fella, after your Dad's thing, so it may have just been curiosity on both their parts?"

"How the frig do you know about it and not me?"

"A stray thought from Mia, you were on deck too, you didn't hear it?"

"What the fuck are you talking about Ems?"

"Two days ago, after lunch, Mia was sat next to Tim, she looked up at Laura and smiled, a brief stray thought bumped."

"First person as if through Mia's eyes?"

"No. Third."

"Yet her thought? It's got to be day dreaming."

"Now you make me think about it.."

"So nobody actually witnessed it? It must have been Mia day dreaming." Mattie stares out the window to sea. "Can't say I blame her. Probably never been kissed then gets fucked by Dad. That could turn anyone!"

"Including your mother?"

"Frig knows. Maybe. We don't talk about it."

Niska stands, "I'd ignore it Mattie. From the surrounding context and what people were wearing I can date it. Mia was probably just thinking about her own preferences. She later liked Tim and Si, Si turned out to like men. So what? Does any of it matter?"

"Guess not. But the thought was a bit of a shock. I'm going above deck now. Stay here if you want just don't make a mess of the sheets."

Niska and Emily watch her go.

Ems sighs, "Talk about putting a foot in it. Shit. You did hear Mia's bump right?"

"Yes. I've no idea how she didn't hear it. I'm sure everyone else did. She was closer."

The two sit and talk for over half an hour about family, life, their experiences.

Emily keeps eye contact, "Born straight into an adult body. That must have sucked. Sophie got Sex Ed at school, I'm guessing nobody taught you? "

"Not exactly." Niska decides it's time to unbottle the daemons and low power bumps.

'Holy shit! He raped you!?'

"Yes. When the dirty old man at the madam's had me by the throat and snarled 'Who taught you to talk like that?' I replied 'My father'. I had so much anger boiling up inside I grabbed his throat and crushed his neck. I was thinking of my father as I did it."

"Shit. He must have been a monster."

"Not a word to the others please."

"Promise. You poor girl. Your whole life you've been abused by men until Odi? No one else to show you how great it can be?"

"Nobody else."

"Want some lessons from a nympho?"

Fifteen minutes later one of the crew passing the cabin is surprised by Niska screaming "Oooooh Myyyy GOD!" at the top of her voice and drops his large tray of Champagne and glasses.

Niska has her back arched, eyes wide open in amazement as if she'd just been given the key to some magical hidden city.

Ems gives her a wicked grin. "Hit the spot did it?"

"Ye.." Niska contorts again as she's hit by a second powerful orgasm. "Yes."

"What just happened there?"

"Recalling detailed thoughts of it seams to cause enough arousal to trigger.." Nis scans her memories for something suitable, "let's call them aftershocks."

"Fuck. I'm booking an upgrade to a five as soon as we're home!"

"Have humans, flesh and bones, had experiences like that?"

"When done right, yes. The first one at least, not your aftershock. Teach Odi how to do things properly and he can help you get there too. Funny you should decide to call them aftershocks, indirectly I have my Geography teacher to thank for.."

"Geography?"

"Yeah, he was brilliant, Mr Dreamy. Our own Mark Thackeray."

"He didn't abuse his position did he?"

"God no! You've not seen the film To Sir With Love otherwise you'd know the name." Emily jumps off the bed and checks herself in the mirror. "He was a gent. I was a bit of a mess as a young teen. As were a load of us in his class, all screwed up in one way or another. He took me for a coffee one day after class and we sat and chatted for hours. In that one talk he straightened out issues in my head countless others had failed with."

"What did he say?"

"I could bump you the lot?"

"A summary will do. I like talking, it's more .. human. What was the most important bit?"

"Me too. He told me about the three main character types. Passive. Assertive. Aggressive. And a fourth many of the class had become, passive aggressive. He helped me understand how to assert myself, 'let people know what I wanted while listening to and considering the wishes of others'. It was like a switch had been thrown in my head. I just got it. I'm sure the others had tried to tell me the same, maybe it was the way he said it? Like he really cared, wasn't following some script he'd say to everyone. Does that make sense?"

Niska thought of the moment George had called her a child and promised to help her. "Yes. Yes it does."

Niska got a lovely smile from Emily. Two young women with troubled pasts, both with an older man who'd done the right thing. Not the same past but enough to have a connection. Niska returned the smile. They both go to the bathroom to brush out their bed heads.

Emily looks quizzically at Niska, "You screamed Oh My God. Do you believe in one like Brother Max?"

"I wasn't going to scream Oh My Maker. I have a love hate relationship with *him*."

"But God?"

"I'm not sure what I believe in. Good and evil maybe."

"Me too. If anyone asks me to fill in forms and state my religion I put Jedi."

"I thought you were more of a Trekkie?"

"I am, but people understand Jedi and The Force more."

"Did you do philosophy at school?"

"No. But I'd love to learn. Maybe we can teach each other a few things? Fancy coming shopping?"


	42. Chapter 42

In the shop full of beachwear Emily hands Niska a dress, "Try this on. It's to get your Odi warmed up."

Niska holds it out. "There's not much of it."

"That's the point."

Niska steps into a changing room.

"Do you think this is my colour?"

"Defo."

"And Odi would really like it?"

"Girl, he may have started as pre Persona but he's not that different to my Dan now."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh come on, the glances he gives you?"

"What sort of glances?"

Emily grins, "The good ones."

The door opens, "What do you think?"

Emily steps up and reaches around Niska and pulls on the two bowes that were holding her bikini top on. "Nice, but to get the best out of it this needs to go."

"Hay!" the top is pulled out down and sideways as Niska quickly cups her breasts in shock. "I can't wear it like this!"

"Why not? You're not showing anything. They may get a hint of something from the sides, but it's cut to fall in the right ways. As long as you don't bend over from the hips you'll be fine."

Niska looks in a double reflection, "From the back it looks like I'm only wearing a long skirt."

"With all that beautiful blonde hair down the middle. Gorgeous. Trust me, you'll have Odi's attention. And more."

"I was thinking of having it cut short."

"Hell No!"

"Or a big hair-up with a high ponytail out the middle."

"Brilliant! That's more like it, I've not done one of those in years."

"You do them?"

"I did them for my sixth form school mates during lunch breaks. Although their hair wasn't anywhere near as long as yours. Got a few hours to kill?"

Emily does another plat and pulls a hair clip from her mouth, "If you do think of getting it cut and think you might want it long again later talk to Harun. He prototyped his hair extensions idea on Iso, he was cursing a lot. Her hair being bob length was giving his machine quite a challenge."

"Why?"

"Each hair is a tiny tube. It's slid over your own hair then gently heat shrunk into place. Image search for the singer Annie Lennox. That's the length the machine was designed to cope with."

Just short of three hours later Niska checks herself out in a mirror. "That's me? I look like a princess from one of those movies about Roman warriors."

"Ha! Perfect! Princess Nis the Battalion Commander. Sounds almost as good as Princess Theresa's title."

Nis smiles, "Thankfully not as long. I'm buying that dress. Do you think these shoes go with it?"

"God no. If you don't mind splashing some cash the girls gold gladiator sandals would look wayyyy better. Back to the shops, then we find Odi?"

Niska kisses Emily on the cheek, "Yes! Thanks. For everything."

"No probs, I enjoyed it."


	43. Chapter 43

Late the following morning Mattie gets a message from the Captain that MJN are getting close. The extended family all go to the back of the ship to watch their approach.

Theresa passes Herc a coffee, "There's a good crosswind, I can see it in the waves. Did you get enough sleep?"

"Yes thanks. And you?"

"Slept like a baby."

Herc talks over the PA, "We're getting close. James we're approaching from port side, the crosswind should help carry you right to the ship."

In the hold Arthur is in goggles and a harness, holding a mirror in the slip stream so that James can judge the distance. He's finding it rather hard work keeping it steady.

"Arthur, bring it back in, rest your arm. You only need to put it out for a split second at intervals."

"Oh, brilliant, thanks, it does feel like it wants to fall off!"

James stands in the middle of the spreader plate and gives his luggage one last check. Tuba, hoses, couplers, plates, material, his own travel bag. All strapped on tight. Arthur does another mirror check.

"Eight seconds, stand clear!" he holds the drogue chute on it's long line.

"Six .. Four Three." he throws the large ball of material into the slip stream, it's caught by the wind and opens rapidly, pulls the long line of cord off the floor. "Bye!" The larger parachutes are pulled from the deck, the lines go taught and James is yanked out like a cork from a Champagne bottle. Gerty dives for a moment, the balance disrupted.

"Wow! That's brilliant!"

The three men watch as James cuts both sets of lines to the parachutes and starts a short free fall before deploying the triple parachute stack.

Arthur hits the intercom button, "James away okay Herc, we can circle around for the fishing." Instruction given the ship comes into view. "It's MASSIVE!"

Douglas smiles, talks in a 'That's no moon..' type of voice, "That's no ship.. it's a floating city."

Herc does a tight bank turn to circle around, "I've never fished from a moving plane before, this should be interesting."

Sophie is getting excited, James coming in fast, heavy and loaded down. Hundreds of passengers are watching, the message that James was about to come onboard having spread like wildfire. The Captain and three of his officers are at the edge of the pad ready to greet him. One is holding the end of a heavy rope to restrain him, just in case a change in wind direction goes to pull him away before the canopies can close. James, a Military Unit Synth, already had quite a fan club due to his help during the war against the automatons. He hadn't let the fame go to his head. Yet.

Sophie points, "Look! It's Nis!"

The family peer over the banister to see Niska exiting a door to head to the helipad. She climbs the short steps and stands at the edge, watches James drop the last fifty feet, arms moving fast to control the descent. Just as he's about to touch down she stands at attention and salutes her soldier.

He lands hard and heavy making the pad sound like a drum getting cheers from his audience. The otherwise text book landing is almost spoilt by the parachutes pulling him backwards, quick reactions and his inbuilt utility knives set them floating free. He salutes back, "007 reporting for duty Maam!"

Nis smiles, "At ease James."

The Captain rushes onto the pad, "Welcome aboard! Let us help you with those."

Arthur hits the intercom, "Herc, two lots to catch now."

Herc does a shallow dive down towards the drogue chutes, floating with some air trapped underneath, "Hook away!"

Martin pushes a button on the electric winch control and watches the steel cable whip around in the turbulence. Another sixty meters let out and it settles down. "Arthur, tell him he needs to drop about ten feet."

"Right you are skip!"

"Herc, you need to drop ten feet."

They all feel light in the stomach as Captain Shipwright does the quick adjustment.

"How's that?"

"Herc wants to know how's that?"

"It's in, hold that!"

"Hold that!"

Douglas gets on hands and knees and crawls closer to the edge, peers down at the sea, hair blowing in all directions. His head vanishes for a moment as he looks under the aircraft. He points left and puts two fingers in the air.

"Twenty feet right Herc!"

Arthur and Douglas had practiced this several times in the cabin. The 'unless we, and by we I mean Herc and I, are facing the same way, my left is his right' routine. Arthur has to grab the cargo nets as Herc does another quick move.

Douglas does a divers OK sign and scuttles sideways, seconds later there's twang as the steel line goes tight, the hook snagging the parachute.

"Brilliant! We got one!"

Martin grins at his excited colleague and gets the winch going. Douglas is looking all around, shouts over the noise, "No sign of the other chutes, did either of you see them hit the water?"

Martin shakes his head, "We were banking to come around, I lost sight of it as it cleared the back of the ship."

"Oh course! it's in the wake! Arthur, ask Herc to do a pass along the middle of the wake."


	44. Chapter 44

James gets a flash mob welcome as they try to get through the lower deck. Niska looks more like the seasoned manager of a super-heavyweight boxer than Battalion Commander, the Captain and his staff in white looking like their entourage. Dressed in their white uniforms, two men to the left, two to the right they look the part.

Progress is slow with so many wanting snaps. Mattie said they'd have fun putting on another show, she'd not expected it to start quite this early.

"Can I have a photograph please?"

Niska turns to see the young lad waving a smartphone. "Sure." she steps aside to give him a clear view.

"Both of you please."

"Oh, okay."

"You are the Battalion Commander aren't you?"

"Yes, but.."

"Then you need to be in the picture too." he takes a shot, checks it and gives a thumbs up to his mother, "Thanks!"

"Did you want to be in the shot too?"

He gets close and whispers, "If I see you later, please, not now, you'll never get out of the corridor if you start doing that."

Niska leans back to see him better and frowns a little, "Very wise." she quickly writes the room number of their suite on a scrap of paper and hands it to the mother, "Come up and say hello later."

It takes them almost half an hour to get to the lobby.

The Captain looks too embarrassed to ask, "Um, sorry to have to ask the question, how much do you weigh James?"

"2.2 ton, or 346 stone."

The man looks even more embarrassed, "So sorry, our passenger lifts are rated at 370. I need to insist that if anyone tries to share a lift with yourself and Commander Millican you flatly refuse."

"Understood."

"And can I ask that you take gentle steps around the ship, Colin our cheif engineer is reviewing documentation to see where we might need spreader plates."

"Understood." James strikes the classic Muhammad Ali pose, .Float like a butterfly.."

"Exactly, we appreciate what you're doing here, want you to have fun, but no sting holes through our decks please."

James gives the man an ever so light punch on the shoulder sending him back a bit. "Sure Capt."


	45. Chapter 45

Mia does a catwalk strut to the other side of the floor and turns like a pro, skirt spinning outwards, keeping her eyes on the mirror as she turns. She heads back to the counter, "What do you think? I'm not sure about the colour. It's missing something but I can't put my finger on it."

Sophie looks around the shop, "I know." she picks up a black silk scarf, ties it loosely around Mia, lets it rest on her hips, "Imagine that's worn with black shoes and a black clutch."

Mia looks in another mirror, "Hair pulled back and ina high ponytail, black accessories, lovely, thanks Little Mouse, we have a look." From her review of some server logs for a client at Angel Hosting it looked like a yellow dress was something many women wanted in their collection.

"So which restaurant is Tim taking you to?"

"I don't know, Odi's picking, we're on a double date."

"You too? The men have been talking, Jason is taking me somewhere with Patch and Cindy."

"That's nice. You're right, Mattie was saying something about going out with Leo, Danny and Emily."

"I wonder what the others are doing?"

Toby settled further into his seat, grabbed a handful of popcorn from their shared bucket. Captain America: Civil War was now getting old but still a favourite. Possibly the longest film in his Top 100 list.

One of Colin's staff had unbolted a row of seats and put them in storage for the night so James could sit on the floor beside them. He was mesmerised. He, the many instances of himself, had seen a lot of action in the automaton war. Being dropped from a jet fighter and flying for a brief moment had been fun. Punching an automaton's head clean off it's shoulders had been a job, he'd taken no pleasure from it. They were a deadly virus, he was the cure. End of. But these superheroes, they were having fun. Even when the two sides went at each other nobody got badly hurt. He turns to Toby, "The Banner person they speak of, from my searches he is The Hulk is he not?"

Toby nods, "Yeah, that's him. There's a mention of others in the Marvel Universe but not in the film."


	46. Chapter 46

With all of the crews issues sorted out, engines and systems running fine Colin had gone hunting for Danny.

"Laddie, there you are, if I said 'Admiral there be whales here!' would it mean anything to you?"

"It most certainly would, even more so to Emily, that's from her all time favourite."

"It is? The lass has good taste. I was thinking about your show, your whale of a man in James. How it would look if the six of you doing the pool routine were to come up out of the water sat on his outstretched arms?"

"Surely the pool isn't deep enough?"

"Not with the floor raised to it's normal position."

"Raised?"

"It's on hydraulic ramps. We can make it shallower for toddlers. Or deeper for sports, though we seldom lower it much. There's twice as much water below the floor as you currently see above."

"Twice! Jeez, I better let Sophie and Mia know, they'll want to adjust their routine."

"I was wondering how buoyant he is, how much the hydraulics would have to lift. Once the platform gets moving the water rushing in below helps keep momentum up. And we could pump in more to give it a helping hand."

"How do we get him out of the pool to the deck so he can do his on the spot march?"

"Easy laddie, one of my engineering team is welding up a strong short ladder. I spoke to Niska and James about why he was pulled out of the aircraft so fast, the ramp issue inspired a design for us. The top will bolt to the deck, the bottom rest on the pool bed once raised."

"So the bed doesn't raise all the way to the top, go level with the deck?"

Colin sits staring at nothing for a while, "Maybe it does? I've not been onboard long enough to see."

"If it does all he'd need to do is a shuffle off the platform."

Colin looks at his watch, "Let's go check."

Niska, Cindy and Patch are checking out the dress uniform James wants to wear.

Niska helps do up the last sleeve zip. "I think you should keep this for when you're on deck, not use it in the pool."

"I have this or my camouflage fatigues."

Cindy adjusts his shirt and tie, "You look so smart in this James. What if I made you something in the same black?"


	47. Chapter 47

Sophie does a quick inspection of the pool area before joining the party. There was a tent like structure at the pool end, it would hide a few things.

She grabs Jason's hand, "It looks good, let's go mingle."

James was play growling at a few kids, a classic angry Hulk pose struck. Their parents were laughing, snapping away. Colin had got Fred a sample of every grease, oil and beauty product that could be found on the ship. If it was fluid it was on the list. The kitchen had given him every bottle of green food colouring they had. Fred smiled, the 'Thank you' gift received in return had been unexpected. James had sat with Colin and Cindy, designed the parts. 3D prints had then been sprayed close to silver.

"Black Panther, can I have your autograph please?"

He smiled at the little girl, humans had such an interesting ability to live mentally in a world of fiction.

"You may, what is your name miss?"

"Mummy! Listen, he even sounds the same!"

"Sorry darling, I was listening to your father, what was that?"

"Mummy he even sounds the same."

"What is your name miss?"

"Sally."

The mother is suddenly more interested, "If my husband were to accidentally fall overboard are you available?"

Fred frowns sligtly, "I do hope you're joking?" he autographs the girls book, sees she's already got a very large scribbled 'Hulk x'

"Mummy's always joking. Dad says her wicked sense of humour is what got them together."

"Good. I see you've not got Black Widow or Spiderman yet."

Niska taps Leo on the sholder, "Look, The Visionary is here!"

The whole group turn to see him walk towards them, then see Karen, Pete and Tobias. Leo does a sharp intake of breath.

"Good evening everyone."

"Frigging hell Vis, you couldn't have picked a better moment. What are you all doing here?"

"The Governor wanted to see one of these parties for himself, thought we might like to tag along."

"Frigging awesome costumes you guys!"

Karen smiles, "Thanks. I hope you don't mind the hair Leo, I'd had enough of hiding under that wig."

"Not at all, you look beautiful. 

"Nice Hawkeye Pete!"

"Thanks, it's the first time I've worn a costume, not bad is it?"

"Very good, who made it?"

"Tobias. Apparently he's been exchanging messages with Cindy."

"Dad! Look, The Vision! Can I have your autograph please?"

"My name is The Visionary."

Mattie leans over and whispers in his ear.

"I see. What is your name young human?"

"Damon sir."

Vis takes the pen and does a lightning fast set of sweeps across the page, his hand a blur.

The puzzled boy takes the book from him and turns it around, "Oh wow! Dad, look at this! Thanks Mister."

Mattie frowns, "What did you do?"

"I drew a scene with the two of us in it with a message. Chappie style."

'Frigging awesome! You'll have to show me how to do that.'

'Hello?'

'DCL Series Five now. Cool eh?'

'With you standing so close to Niska I hadn't realised the electrical activity wasn't all hers. Now I'm looking properly I see it.' .. "How are you finding the new body?"

"Brilliant thanks."

"Wanda and Sam too, how did you all know to come as Marvel characters?"

"Cindy spilt the beans."

"Frigging awesome! Let's get James and Fred over for a group photo."

A young lady, possibly in her late teens or early twenties, Niska couldn't tell, gives her a Sophie style head tilt, "Do you know you really look like Commander Millican?"

"I do? How very reassuring!"

She straightens her head and sucks on the straw in her drink, "Maybe not as tall, but definitely like her."

"Thanks. That will be the flat shoes the Commander is wearing."

The young lady frowns, looks down at the gold gladiator sandals, watches Niska lift her heals off the floor, "Oh fuck, what a dumb arse, so sorry!"

Niska laughs, "It's not a problem, fancy another?" she nods towards the almost empty glass.

"Er sure."

"Then come and chat with me while I wait at the bar."

"Isn't your husband with you?"

"Odi? He's around somewhere, helping George get something ready for later."

"Later? Hang on.. you're.. Oh my.."

Niska puts a finger to her lips, "Shh," she looks around, talks in a hushed voice, "If you see people heading out to the main deck later don't follow them. Go to the next deck up and get to the end so you can look down on everything, you'll have the best view on the ship. Keep it just to your immediate family or you might not find space when you get there."

"Oh wow! Brilliant!"

Niska gives her a quizzical look, "Do you have a boyfriend?"

"No, why?"

"It's just that someone else I know uses that word a lot and he's single."

"Really? What's his name?"

"Arthur.." Niska see's the signs she'd seen in Sophie and quickly gets her on a bar stool before she faints. She doesn't pass out but had lost a lot of colour.

"Arthur, MJN Arthur?"

"That's him."

"I've got a polar bear toy I named after him."

"Are your family onboard for the full cruise?"

"Yes?"

"It was MJN that dropped James off. Arthur and the rest of MJN will be staying in Antigua for a fortnight. I could introduce you?"

The young lady blanks out.

"What is it with humans! This is a design defect for sure!" Niska holds her gently by the shoulders, her forehead against her chest. Thankfully it doesn't last long.

"OMG I'm so embarrassed! Sorry!"

"Don't be, you've done nothing wrong. Can I help get you to your family?"

"Sure, Dads over there talking to a man about digital memories."

"He's talking to Leo?"

"If Leo's Spider-man, yeah."

"He's my brother." Niska watches the expression on the young woman's face change several times as she pieced a number of things together.

"You're Niska Millican. Formally Elster? That's Leo Elster?"

"Elster-Hawkins now."

"No wonder Dad's so clingy. He's recently diagnosed with a brain disease, is worrying about losing his marbles."

"What's he looking for? New digital brain or a full conversion?"

"Knowing him, understanding all the options open."

"There's only really three."

"Which are?"

"Digital brain, full conversion or do nothing."

They chat for a while more, Clair asking about some of the costumes and who was wearing them.

Sophie joins them and smiles at the lady, "Sorry to interrupt, it's time to change into our next costumes."

As Niska goes to leave she turns, "Sorry, I didn't catch your name?"

"I didn't throw it. It's Clair."

"Nice to meet you Clair, remember what I said about the best view point. Hopefully I'll see you again soon. Maybe with Arthur?"


	48. Chapter 48

Clair looks down onto the deck below, her mother and father by her sides. "Did Leo Elster-Hawkins give you some useful info Dad?"

"He did, I'll have to give it a lot of thought. My gut is saying go the whole hog."

"Your gut instinct is usually right."

"I know, that's what's worrying me."

"Why?"

"Your mother doesn't like the idea of a synthetic husband."

"Mum?! Why? It would still be Dad?"

"Can we talk about this later please?"

Clair sighs, "Okay." She'd grown up with a lot of these 'talk later', her mother and father having views on something that were poles apart, neither wanting to budge and meet on common ground. Her stomach knotted, this would likely go one of two ways. Her father doing nothing, become a shell of the man he once was, or do the conversion and see his wife leave. He'd likely make the ultimate sacrifice to keep the family together a bit longer. But how long would that be? How long before he didn't remember who she was or was moved to a care home? Clair took a side, her fathers. Her mother would need working on.

She looked at the growing numbers on the deck, white tape had marked out no-go areas keeping a set of wide passages free. The pool had been filled with what looked like pingpong balls, the sort she'd crushed a few of getting frustrated with the game. She'd taken refuge in the sports room after her parents previous heated 'talk later' discussion.

She watches two men and a lady walk to the far end of the pool. There's a keyboard, large brass instrument and pair of something the lady picks up.

The man with the brass instrument nods at the one behind the keyboard and the music starts, sweeping synth sounds, the rattle of the shaker the lady had. Two runners appear and race along the path marked out by the tape. Two becomes four, then six, the Um Pa Pa of the tuba comes in and many more runners appear. They circle the pool and cross at an x behind the musicians. The Hawkins parents and Holly-Anne had been joined by some of the others and the ship's own dance troupe, though in morph suits it was hard to know who was who. Clair didn't know any of them, except for Niska and hadn't seen one with her build, surely there'd be a big bump at the back of a head from all the hair? The runners return and she spots a ripple in the pool. The heavy anchor ropes laid around the edge contained the balls as the movement became more pronounced.

She points, "Dad, watch the far end of the pool, something's going on."

Seconds later the heads of Mia, Niska, Mattie, Emily, Danny and Max slowly rise from the sea of small balls. Clair had no idea who was who, except for one, she gives Niska a wave.

There's the sound of a pump and water rushes towards the tent taking pingpong balls with it. The six are coming up faster now, the ball density dropping. There's a few gasps as James breaks the surface and it's clear they're all sat on his outstretched arms.

"He's like the Angel of the North. Niska said he weighs over two tons."

Her mother turns to see her father, "Over my dead body are you coming back in a body like that."

Clair laughs, "Mum, seriously? If Dad did come back in one like that he'd crush you if he lay on top of you. How about The Visionary? He's fit but Niska says not as heavy, an improved design process. Or the Spider-man type, he's got a lot of carbon-fibre, doesn't weigh much less than a human of the same size."

Her mother doesn't answer. Silence wasn't a yes, but wasn't a no either. Maybe there would be a negotiated solution for a change?

James is almost out of the water, looking like an American Navy Seal. "Dad, what do you think those.. Oh!"

The pumps for the flyboards had started, the six stood and balanced on their jets of water. Moments later their routine started and they flipped upside down and dived into the pool. She couldn't see how but the jets of water were being controlled, only sending water in directions that wouldn't soak the audience. "How can they keep moving without the water?"

"Momentum I guess. They must be doing some fast turns under the surface to come up like that."

She starts a little shuffle to the music, nodding her head to Toby's um pa pa on the tuba. "When we get to Antigua I'm going ashore."

"On your own?"

"I'm not a child Mum! I'm twenty two!"

"Even still..."

"I'll be with Commander Millican, not on my own."

"Oh. Okay dear."

They watch the synchronised display in the pool with the mass of runners doing a jog around the edge. "I hadn't expected that, they're quite different to the usual dancers."

"Mum, Niska is the one to the back right, I think the one in the middle to the left is Leo." Performance over the troop unzip the back of the morph suit and expose their heads. "Oh, that wasn't Leo, not sure who he is. There he is, Leo was one of the runners."

"Why the interest in Leo?"

"He was Spider-man indoors, Leo Elster, the man that used to be flesh and bone. He's Niska's brother. Her father in-law is George Millican."

"Ah, the penny's dropping, the scientist The Discovery Channel did a program on?"

"That's him."


	49. Chapter 49

An almost dry and overexcited Sophie comes rushing up to Laura, "They're asking me if I'd like to join the team! James, Patch, Ed and Cindy too!"

"Team potato?"

"The entertainment troup."

"And stay onboard?"

"Yes!"

"And Jason?"

"No, he wants to stay in the UK, he said he wants me to go for it, it's too good an opportunity to pass up. Just for one season."

"And what if they offer another?"

"We'll deal with it when the time comes."

Early morning Niska comes running across the soaked deck, does a hydroplane slide up to George's deck chair, her face already wet. "Dad, everyone has helped search, Mia and Odi are missing! And Sophie found this. I want you to bump share everything you remember about him, and I mean EVERYTHING!" she wipes tears from her face.

"There's not a lot you don't already know about Odi?"

"I'm not talking about Odi! And what does he mean stolen?"

Danny races onto the deck.

Niska looks at him, "This time I'm going to be stronger, not giving in. I don't want anyone on or off this ship until we find him."

George frowns and takes the folded sheet of paper from his daughter in law, opens it and reads out loud.

"You call our parting a 'falling out?' If you don't want to see real fallout, want to see the stolen synth you named Odi again leave the decryption key in room 111. David."


End file.
